A Thought Experiment

Feyisa Lilesa, marathoner, won silver at the Olympics this year when he came in 70 seconds behind Kenyan Eliud Kipchoge. Lilesa ran 26.219 miles in 2 hours, 9 minutes and 54 seconds, which means his pace was a skosh under 5 minutes per mile for more than 26 miles.

Coming across the finish line, Lilesa raised his arms above his head in an X.

Photograph by OLIVIER MORIN/AFP/GETTY IMAGES, via Newsweek http://www.newsweek.com/ethiopian-runner-feyisa-lilesa-sparks-40000-crowdfunding-campaign-492395

Lilesa’s from Ethiopia, where the federal government has recently been displacing folks in order to “develop” their lands and murdering hundreds of people who protest. Lilesa’s X was a gesture of solidarity with the farmers and protesters back home. Having made this gesture on the world stage of the Olympics, Lilesa now fears for his life and safety in Ethiopia. This week, he decided not to go back.

Lilesa and his circumstances are different from those of most refugees in the United States, but I’d like to work from his similarities with others who fear the governments of their home countries and take a little imaginary journey.

Lilesa, like many refugees, has a strong claim for asylum in the United States. He legitimately fears his government (or representatives of his government) will kill him for his political views and behavior. If he were like many refugees to the United States, he might show up at a U.S. border and ask agents there for protection.

I seek asylum because believe my government will kill me if I go home.

Do you have a visa to be in the United States?

No. But if I go home I believe they will kill me because of my political beliefs and actions.

If he were an average asylum-seeker, Lilesa would then be called an “arriving alien” and he would be put in prison. The United States government has quotas with the corporations who run immigration prisons — my federal government has a contractual agreement to provide 34,000 inmates to private prisons each and every night. Lilesa would be among the thousands of refugees who help my government meet its quotas.

Again, assuming things go as they do for many asylum seekers, after staying in jail for 6 months, the winner of the silver medal in the marathon at this year’s Olympics would then be entitled to a hearing to determine whether my government should grant him bond. If a judge agreed to grant him bond, the bond amount might range anywhere from $1000 to $20,000, or more. There’s a good chance, if he presented bail, that he’d be locked into an electronic monitoring device.

Lilesa’s hearing to determine whether he would be granted asylum, if he were like many current asylum seekers, might not take place until 2019. (He’d have to keep the electronic monitoring device locked around his ankle until then.) In the mean time, he’d be cast into series of byzantine systems that would determine his ability to work, obtain food and housing, and remain safe while he waited for his asylum hearing. Every time he met with an immigration officer (maybe once a month, or once every three, six, or twelve months), he would potentially be subject to deportation.

This is the process for many refugees in the United States. Feyisa Lilesa is too famous to have this happen to him, but it happens every day, to hundreds of less famous people, who are no less deserving of asylum.