Advertisement
Advertisement

Edmonton attack suspect had history in San Diego immigration detention

Share

The man arrested in connection with attacking a police officer and four pedestrians in Edmonton, Canada, in late September had previously been ordered deported in San Diego.

Abdulahi Hasan Sharif, 30, who obtained refugee status in Canada, is believed to be the same Somali man named Abdullahi Hassan Sharif, who was detained after coming without documents to the San Ysidro port of entry in 2011, government officials from both countries told several media outlets.

On Sept. 30, 2017, a man struck an Edmonton police officer with a white Chevrolet Malibou, according to Edmonton police. He then jumped out of the car and stabbed the officer with a knife before fleeing on foot. Around midnight, a police officer pulled over a U-Haul truck and recognized the driver’s name from the earlier attack. A chase ensued, and the U-Haul truck deliberately attempted to hit pedestrians as it crossed intersections, police said.

Advertisement

The U-Haul truck eventually flipped, and police apprehended the driver.

The driver, Sharif, had obtained refugee status in Canada after crossing the border legally in 2012, public safety minister Ralph Goodale told Canadian news outlets. Unlike in the U.S., immigrants in Canada can apply to be refugees after they arrive.

Sharif was never a refugee in the U.S., where only those who come through the resettlement program that partners with the United Nations have that status. Nor was he granted asylum.

According to Lauren Mack, spokeswoman for Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Sharif was held at Otay Mesa Detention Center throughout his immigration proceedings and ordered deported in September 2011 by a judge. Sharif waived his right to appeal the decision, she said.

Robin Carr, an immigration attorney who has worked with many Somali clients, said that if Sharif saw a judge, he most likely requested asylum.

Statements from government officials did not say whether Sharif requested asylum. Federal government officials cannot discuss asylum claims because of privacy rules.

Sharif was never deported. The U.S. didn’t recognize a government in Somalia at the time, Carr said, which meant no one from Somalia could be deported.

Because Sharif couldn’t actually be sent to Somalia in the “reasonably foreseeable future,” the agency had to release him from custody, spokeswoman Mack said. A 2001 Supreme Court ruling says that the U.S. government can’t hold deportees indefinitely if they are unable to be deported.

“It was a different ballgame back then,” Carr said, explaining that her clients often wouldn’t appeal their cases if they lost because it meant they would get out of detention more quickly.

The agency released Sharif on an order of supervision a month after he was ordered deported, Mack said. Sharif didn’t show up for his check-in meeting two months later.

“Efforts by ERO San Diego to locate him were not successful,” Mack said. “Sharif had no known criminal history at the time of his encounters with ICE.”

The situation for Somalis isn’t the same today.

After Somalia established an embassy in Washington, D.C., the Obama administration began negotiating for travel documents to begin sending deportees to Somalia. Some left on commercial flights in 2016, and the first flight full of deportees took off in January 2017.

The Trump administration has imposed visa sanctions on four countries that it says refuse to take back deportees: Cambodia, Eritrea, Guinea and Sierra Leone.

It’s not clear how Sharif was able to apply for refugee status after crossing legally into Canada.

Carr, the immigration attorney, said people from other countries crossing at ports of entry between Canada and the U.S. are not supposed to be able to request asylum because of an agreement between the two neighbors.

They are allowed to apply as refugees if they make it inside without detection, she said, and the process is easier than getting asylum in the U.S.

She has had recent clients who gave up on their asylum cases in the U.S. and snuck into Canada to try there, she said.

“In Canada, it’s not an adversarial process like it is here,” Carr said. “You don’t have a government attorney sitting at the other table trying to make sure you don’t get asylum.”

After the first news reports of Sharif’s history surfaced, some San Diegans called for an end to refugee resettlement in the county.

“San Diego strikes again. Another radical Muslim from San Diego attacks in Edmonton,” said Curt Crook of East County. “How many more are there among us? San Diego was the start for the 9/11 terrorist, and I’m sure there were more, but we’ll never know the way everyone plays the PC game nowadays.”

Some suggested banning Muslims.

“Banning Muslims is not Anti-American. It was routine before 1952, based on legislation passed in 1924,” said Lincoln Pickard of Palm City. “Our culture is under attack because Muslims commit and/or condone violence that enforces Sharia Law.”

Nadine Toppozada, director of refugee services for Catholic Charities in San Diego, said that Sharif’s case isn’t representative of refugees or Muslims.

“Muslims are no more linked to terrorist activity than Christians are to the KKK,” Toppozada said.

She used the Rohingya, who are mostly Muslim, and who are fleeing ethnic cleansing in Myanmar, as an example.

“I don’t think Rohingya Muslims are fleeing Burma because they want to commit terrorist acts elsewhere,” Toppozada said. “They’re fleeing because they’re being persecuted. Being of any particular faith doesn’t automatically associate one with extremist tendencies.”

President Donald Trump’s travel ban executive order has often been called a “Muslim ban” by those who oppose it. The latest installment of Trump’s order barring entry to citizens of certain countries was blocked Tuesday by a judge in Hawaii.

Immigration Videos

When children are separated from their parents at the border, here is where they go next On Now

When children are separated from their parents at the border, here is where they go next

Prospects of a deal for 'Dreamers' may hinge on separating Trump from hard-liners on his staff On Now

Prospects of a deal for 'Dreamers' may hinge on separating Trump from hard-liners on his staff

What is DACA? On Now

What is DACA?

Border wall prototype contractors selected On Now

Border wall prototype contractors selected

Ukrainian boxer wins asylum in U.S. On Now

Video: Ukrainian boxer wins asylum in U.S.

30 apprehended after Border Patrol agents discover tunnel On Now

30 apprehended after Border Patrol agents discover tunnel

Kurdish diaspora prepare to vote on independence On Now

Video: Kurdish diaspora prepare to vote on independence

Follow me on Facebook for live updates about immigration news

kate.morrissey@sduniontribune.com, @bgirledukate on Twitter

Advertisement