Latino immigrants in the U.S., here illegally, are under enormous pressure as ICE intensifies its efforts to detain and deport undocumented people. Since the election of Trump, Dallas has lead the country in the number of deportations. Imam Omar Suleiman is the founder and president of the Yaqueen Institute for Islamic Research in Dallas, Texas, and says the adversity that the Muslim and Latino communities face is similar. “I think the tools that have been employed against immigrants are the same tools that have been employed against refugees, which are the same tools that have been employed against the Muslim community as a whole, which is the dehumanization — the ‘otherizing’ — that allows people to subconsciously accept this idea that we somehow do not deserve the same level of dignity and respect and liberty that everybody else does.”
While some imams are considering offering their mosque as a sanctuary to shelter asylum seekers or migrants in need, Imam Suleiman hesitates at this idea. “You know, there are other ways to express solidarity and support but announcing your particular mosque as a sanctuary could potentially endanger that particular Muslim community and then obviously the immigrants themselves that would seek shelter would be under that intensified scrutiny.”
