This week, we’re highlighting our most memorable Youth Apprenticeship Program stories.
The U.S. immigration court and detention system can be a no-man’s-land. But Damme Getachew spoke to one man, Somkenechukwu Ossai, who represented himself and beat the odds.
We’re waiting in a cold white room. Chris Bhang hits the buzzer for the third or fourth time, explaining that it usually takes a couple tries before an officer opens the door.
“I’m just hoping for the lowest penalty,” says Bhang, a lawyer at Ineo Law Group, a small Seattle immigration law firm.
We are mostly silent. After another ten minutes, an officer in a uniform with a GEO Group badge on the shoulder finally comes and lets us in.
We walk down a long, blank hallway. The officer opens a door on our right and all of a sudden we’re in the middle of a courtroom. The seal for the Executive Office for Immigration Review decorates the wall behind the judge.
This is U.S. immigration court.
