A single mom from the Bay State who was part of Occupy Boston has been taken into custody and faces being deported back to Morocco after an immigration judge denied her request to stay, federal officials said yesterday.
Siham Byah, 40, of Nahant faces a “final deportation order” after numerous appeals, said Shawn Neudauer, New England spokesman for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
Byah was arrested Tuesday at the ICE office in Burlington.
“Ms. Byah has a criminal record that includes convictions for misdemeanor offenses. She will remain in ICE custody pending removal from the United States,” Neudauer said in a statement.
Byah’s attorney, Matt Cameron of East Boston, did not return several calls left by the Herald yesterday. Today he told the Herald his client's son is in the custody of the state Department of Children and Families.
Byah, Cameron added today, is staging a hunger strike in the Bristol County House of Correction.
ICE said arrangements can be made for Byah’s son to accompany his mother back home to her native Morocco.
Byah was first ordered removed in 2006 for failing to appear in immigration court, ICE said. She filed a motion to reopen her case, which was granted.
She was ordered removed in 2012, but appealed. That was dismissed a year later. This past week an immigration judge said she should be deported.
ICE officials defended the case, saying Byah entered the country illegally and knew she faced being sent back to her native country, despite having a child while in the U.S.
Byah, a local activist, said in a YouTube video that she was part of Occupy Boston in 2011 and an outspoken supporter of the “Arab Spring,” a Democracy movement in Arab countries.
