PUBLIC TESTIMONY
Testimony by Abou Cissé, Asylum Seeker from Mauritania
3:29:53
·
4 min
Abou Cissé, an asylum seeker from Mauritania, testifies about his concerns regarding the new administration's potential policies on immigration and asylum. He pleads for the opportunity to retain work permits and gain legal status in the United States, emphasizing the dangers he would face if forced to return to his home country.
- Cissé fled Mauritania in 2023 due to discrimination, famine, jihadism, and insecurity
- He expresses fear of torture or death if sent back to Mauritania
- Cissé stresses that asylum seekers are not criminals and want to contribute positively to the United States
Abou Cissé (via French Interpreter)
3:29:53
Hello.
3:29:53
My name is Abusisay.
3:29:55
I'm from Mauritania in West Africa.
3:29:57
In my country, there is discrimination, famine, Jihadism, and insecurity.
3:30:02
I came to the United States in 2003 2023 seeking a better life and seeking to stay alive.
3:30:44
With the election of this new president, we, the community of migrants seeking asylum, are very concerned.
3:30:52
We've received information saying that, our work permits might be canceled and that our demands, our applications for asylum will not be accepted, and we might be sent back to our countries of origin, that we have fled fleeing injustice, discrimination, our or re for reasons of our ethnic group, our religion, or our sexual orientation.
3:31:58
If I go back to my country, my country of origin, which is Mauritania, I might be tortured, even tortured to death.
3:32:06
And I think that many people who are here today are in the same situation that I am in.
3:32:12
I'm very traumatized by the fact that I might have to return to my country if I am stopped by the immigration police.
3:32:19
I am not a criminal.
3:32:20
I fight injustice and racial discrimination, and I do this wherever it might be.
3:32:26
That is the reason that I found myself coming to the United States.
3:33:11
The United States is a country that respects their human rights, and it does protect its population.
3:33:17
So I would like to ask elected officials and the government of the United States to give us the chance to keep our work permits, to get work permits, to become legal here so that we don't become a burden to the government of the United States.
3:33:34
We are not criminals.
3:33:36
We are not part of we are not members of gangs.
3:33:38
We are not delinquents.
3:33:40
We want to work here.
3:33:41
We want to be safe, and we want to take charge of our lives.
3:33:46
We want to take responsibility, have a life, participate in the flourishing of our lives, and also in the flourishing of the United States, the country that we love.