Bureaucratic Hurdles: ICE Invests Heavily in Deporting Somali Asylum Seeker Despite Impossibility
ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AX) — From the frigid confines of an Anchorage jail, Roble Ahmed Salad, a 27-year-old Somali asylum seeker, epitomizes the intricate and often perplexing nature of immigration enforcement in the United States, particularly Alaska. The U.S. government has already invested thousands of taxpayer dollars in an attempt to deport this man, despite the clear and present dangers associated with returning anyone to Somalia.
To paint a fuller picture, Salad has no criminal record, neither in America nor in Somalia. Yet, an unfortunate confluence of bureaucratic missteps has left him tangled in legal proceedings. His story offers a rare glimpse into the shadowy operations of ICE in the Last Frontier, miles from the media’s eye in major cities like New York or Los Angeles. Consider this for a moment: How is it that a city like Anchorage can become the setting for such high-stakes immigration drama?
The narrative began in December 2022 when Salad crossed the U.S.-Mexico border, seeking refuge. Initially, immigration officials found his fear of returning to Somalia credible. But in a twist of fate, he faced his asylum hearing without legal counsel. Would the outcome have been different if he had legal aid? An inquiry worth pondering. Unfortunately, his asylum bid was denied, as well as his subsequent appeal. By May 2023, a de facto deportation order loomed over his head—an order ICE could not execute.
Somalia, tumultuous and unpredictable, is governed partially by fragile authorities and militant factions. Such conditions have persuaded the U.S. to avoid enforced repatriations to the region. Eventually, ICE released Salad in November 2023 under an “order of supervision,” acknowledging the practical impossibility of his removal anytime soon. Allowed to reside in Anchorage, he took up employment as a caretaker in an assisted living facility, trying to make a semblance of a new life in uncertain times.
Nevertheless, the bureaucracy returned with a vengeance. In a bewildering ordeal, Salad used his own finances to fly back to Texas in December 2024 to meet a required check-in with immigration officials. Yet, an ICE paperwork oversight failed to document his presence. Subsequently, upon realizing Salad’s relocation to Anchorage, authorities unfortunately and incorrectly labeled him an “immigration fugitive.”
His legal team, led by attorney Margaret Stock, vehemently disputes the assertion. “Fugitives do not spend their savings flying 4,000 miles to report in as directed,” Stock admonished in a court document. It’s a compelling argument, underscoring the contradictions in Salad’s treatment.
This year alone, ICE has detained five individuals on immigration grounds in Alaska, as part of a broader enforcement push under President Donald Trump’s administration. Of these five, only one individual had a criminal record, which was a minor misdemeanor of obtaining a driver’s license without legal status. Despite this, ICE continues to expend substantial energy and resources on Salad’s unique case.
Attorney Stock’s court filings reveal that ICE has already procured multiple sets of plane tickets to transport Salad and two officers from Anchorage to Texas and back again. All the while, detention costs accrue, amounting to $212 per detainee per day in Alaska’s correctional facilities. Salad, who has committed no crime, languishes in cuffs, wearing prison garb, and sharing quarters with convicted felons.
“This is an expensive mess,” Stock notes, criticizing ICE’s stubborn insistence on detaining a man when legal logic says they cannot proceed with deportation. Meanwhile, Salad hopes to secure Temporary Protected Status (TPS), a category that affords temporary refuge to individuals from nations ravaged by conflict or disaster while allowing them to live and work in the U.S. Somalia remains eligible for TPS through at least 2026.
The Trump administration, however, has actively scaled back TPS designations, evident when Venezuelans were removed from the list—a decision now entangled in legal disputes. Not long after, Haiti met the same fate. Despite these discouraging developments, Salad perseveres with his TPS application. Yet, ICE agents detained him once more in Anchorage on February 5, shuttling him to Texas, then quickly back to Alaska, reflecting the case’s ongoing complexity.
According to Texas-based immigration lawyer Teresa Coles-Davila, acquainted with Salad’s plight, the government seems unwilling to retract its stance. “It sounds like ICE is digging in their heels,” she stated. “They’re doing everything they can for the optics because now they’ve invested so much time and money in it.”
As we await the federal court’s decision on Salad’s detention, critical questions remain unanswered: How far is too far when it comes to chasing paperwork errors in the immigration system? And how ought society balance national security with humanity and compassion? For now, Salad awaits his fate behind bars in Anchorage, his future uncertain, as does whether the government will prolong spending on a deportation ultimately unenforceable by law.
Edited By Ali Musa Axadle Times International–Monitoring.
