By Guy Page
Lawyers with Vermont Law School’s Center for Justice Reform Clinic are representing a Burlington cab driver from Somalia who was sentenced for immigration fraud in 2019 but who was arrested on New Year’s Day by immigration officials.
Hussien Noor Hussien was detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents January 1. He is incarcerated in Northwest State Correctional Facility awaiting a February 4 hearing on his request that he not be moved out of state.
Federal court records for Hussien V. Bondi already show 12 motions and court decisions in the case. Hussien is listed as an ‘alien detainee’ pending the habeas corpus (location of incarceration) hearing. The presiding judge is Geoffrey Crawford, who released Palestinian activist Mohsen Mahdawi from federal custody in April last year. The VLS Center for Justice Reform Clinic opened a Burlington office on Elmwood Avenue, a stone’s throw from the federal building, in 2023 with federal funding secured by U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders, the Burlington Free Press reported in June, 2023.
Hussien Noor Hussien of Burlington, who was 56 at the time, was sentenced September 11, 2019 in U.S. District Court in Maine to two months in prison and three years of supervised release for impersonating another in a naturalization proceeding, procuring naturalization contrary to law and making a false statement on a passport application.
In addition, the Court entered an order revoking Hussien’s citizenship, which the law requires when a person is convicted for procuring naturalization contrary to law. It is unclear whether Hussien was deported, or where he has lived following his two-month sentence.
Court records and trial evidence revealed that in 2004, Hussien entered the United States as a refugee under the name Abukar Hassan Abdule. He entered with the wife and children of the true Abukar Hassan Abdule. In 2011, he applied for U.S. citizenship under the same name. He affirmed on his citizenship application and during an in-person citizenship interview in South Portland, Maine, that his name was Abukar Hassan Abdule.
He ultimately was naturalized under the same name. After becoming a U.S. citizen, he applied for a U.S. passport under the name Abukar Hassan Abdule. In 2013, he filed in Vermont state court to legally change his name in the U.S. from Abukar Hassan Abdule to Hussien Noor Hussien, the name he was given at birth.
The investigation prior to the 2019 sentencing was conducted by the U.S. Department of State, Diplomatic Security Service; U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s Homeland Security Investigations; and the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, Office of Inspector General.
Hussien’s supporters on Reddit are asking the public to support his family: “Hussien Noor Hussien has been living in the US for 22 years. He used a false name to escape Somalia, which hurt no one, and served his time for that fraud after he was caught. A few weeks ago, ICE abducted him from his cab at the Burlington airport and imprisoned him at the NW correctional facility in St Albans.
“Fortunately, the Center for Justice Reform Clinic at VLS is representing Hussien pro bono. But the legal process is likely to be a very lengthy one and may result in Hussien being deported. Hussien has five children and four stepchildren. We’re asking those who would like to do so to make contributions for his family’s groceries, rent, living expenses and legal fees.”
The Reddit post urges supporters to Venmo his wife or make a donation through United Immigrant Refugee Communities of Vermont, a Burlington-based organization. It also urges supporters to attend his hearing at the federal building in Burlington at 11 AM Feb. 4. “Let’s fill the courtroom,” the post urges.