Book Discussion of Shackled: 92 Refugees Imprisoned on ICE Air

Please join Milkweed Editions, The Binger Center for New Americans, and The Advocates for Human Rights as we present Rebecca Sharpless, author of Shackled: 92 Refugees Imprisoned on ICE Air, in conversation with Nasra Ismail, the Executive Director U.S. Enterprise at Alight, and Cani Adan, the Executive Director of New Roots Midwest.

About the book

Published by the University of California Press, the book documents how in December 2017, U.S. immigration authorities shackled and abused 92 African refugees for two days while attempting to deport them by plane to Somalia. When national media broke the story, government officials lied about what happened. Shackled tells the story of this harrowing failed deportation, the resulting class action litigation, and two men’s search for safety in the United States over the course of three long years. Sharpless, as lead counsel for the group of 92, provides a rare look at the brute-force mechanics of deportation in the United States.Through Abdulahi’s and Sa’id’s firsthand accounts, immigration lawyer Rebecca A. Sharpless brings to life the harsh consequences of the U.S. deportation system and how racism and anti-Blackness operate within it. Sharpless follows the money that ICE funnels into local jails, private contractors, and charter jets, exposing a sprawling system of immigration enforcement that detains and abuses non citizens at scale. Woven with the wider context of Abdulahi’s and Sa’id’s stories, this immigration odyssey reveals disturbing truths about Somalia, asylum, and the U.S. court system. Shackled will galvanize readers—attorneys, activists, policymakers, and scholars alike—to call out and dismantle this brutal infrastructure.

About the speakers

REBECCA SHARPLESS is the founding director of the Immigration Clinic and teaches immigration law at the University of Miami. She researches and writes in the areas of immigration law, progressive lawyering, and the intersection of immigration and criminal law. Her scholarship focuses on how hierarchies within these areas affect the most marginalized, denigrated, and unpopular groups.

CANI ADEN is the Executive Director of New Roots Midwest, a nonprofit organization committed to supporting immigrant integration in Minnesota and North Dakota. Cani is a longstanding advocate for making northwest Minnesota a welcoming place for new arrivals. A former client of The Advocates for Human Rights who was recently granted asylum Cani is originally from Somalia and arrived in the U.S. as an adult.

NASRA ISMAIL is the newly-appointed Executive Director of U.S. Enterprise at Alight, a local humanitarian organization whose purpose is to inspire and unleash abundance in every person by being the best at co-creating with displaced people. Nasra has extensive experience in humanitarian aid and is working now to help shape how Alight supports diaspora communities arriving in this country. Originally from Somali, she came to the United States at a young age as a refugee.