The brother of Cecelia Lizotte, the owner of an acclaimed West African restaurant in Roxbury’s Nubian Square, remains in U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement custody after having been recently denied release on bail or with electronic monitoring.
Paul Dama, a Nigerian immigrant, was detained by federal immigration agents on his way to church on June 15. Since then, he’s been held at Strafford County Jail in Dover, New Hampshire.
“Yesterday, I just broke down. We gathered everything [to support him] and then some more, and then it was declined, denied,” said Lizotte, his sister, chef and owner of Suya Joint restaurant. She described her brother as sounding “defeated” in her phone calls to him.
Dama has an asylum application pending, hinging on his kidnapping and torture by Boko Haram the year before he arrived in the U.S. But he was denied bond in a court hearing before Immigration Judge Yul-mi Cho on July 10, and denied the ability to leave custody under surveillance as he awaits his proceedings this Wednesday.
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement referred GBH News to a previous statement and recommended contacting the Department of Justice’s Executive Office for Immigration Review for further information about Dama’s case. EOIR, which did not respond to a request for comment, is the entity that run’s the nation’s immigration courts.
“The final resort was [to] request a parole where it’s an intensive monitoring, either with a GPS tracking on his phone, on his arms, or even on his leg,” Lizotte said. “That was what we were hoping for. Yesterday, I received that denial from ICE officers. They said based on the judge’s decision they would not approve the parole for him to be out in the community.”
Dama was convicted of two DUIs last year, but his attorney, Abeba Attles, said his work authorization and legal paperwork were up-to-date and in good standing at the time of his detention. Attles said he complied with penalties like community service and programs related to driving under the influence.
“He’s not a violent criminal. He’s hardworking. He’s a good guy,” she said then.
Dama came to the U.S. in 2019 on a visitor visa to join his sister, Lizotte, who was already a U.S. citizen. He subsequently applied for asylum, citing his kidnapping and torture by Boko Haram in 2018, a group designated as a terrorist organization by the U.S. government. He fears being deported back to Nigeria because he has been public about his ordeal, and being re-persecuted.
Lizotte said that Dama even had a psychiatric evaluation done before the bond hearing and passed.
“On the bottom they do indicate that, yeah, they find Paul to be a contributing human to the society, not a threat to the society,” she said.
She denies the federal government’s claim that he can’t be freed.
“He has done everything within his own power to make sure that, since after the mistake that he has had in the past, due to all the tragedy that came on him, like he’s been making sure he follows the rules, giving back to the community, is a good person, sober, reflecting on everything,” said Lizotte.
Since settling in Massachusetts, Dama has taken on a leadership role at his sister’s business, serving as an operational manager, according to the family. He also worked for a time as a personal care attendant at a group home for elderly adults with disabilities.
Lizotte said the family is waiting for permission to visit Dama in person, but that application is still pending.
The community reaction has been significant. Some restaurants have fundraised for Dama’s legal fees and a series of character letters have been submitted to the federal government, including from state Sen. Liz Miranda and Rhode island state Rep. David Morales.
Local community leaders like Chioma Nnaji who have known the family for years also sent testimonials.
“Paul is not only a central figure in the daily operations of Suya Joint — contributing to everything from food preparation and staff training to customer service — but he is also one of the most warm, dependable, and grounded individuals I’ve ever met,” wrote Nnaji, who also noted that Dama was “essential” to the restaurant’s food distribution during the COVID-19 lockdowns.
Federal immigration authorities told GBH News in June that they arrested Dama because he had been living in the country illegally since his visitor visa expired in 2019 and noted his DUI convictions. His next hearing in September is related to his asylum application.
