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Ramon’s Bio:
Ramon Michael was born in 1963 in Dora, Iraq, a majority Assyrian town since its inception until recently. His father Sargis was born in Turkey in 1918, while his family was on the run from the marauding Ottoman Turks and their Kurdish allies during the Seyfo Genocide of 1915-1918. Sargis never knew his father who perished during that Genocide. Ramon’s mother Phabronia was born to a typical large Assyrian family from Habbaniya in northern Iraq and was married by 16 years of age. Ramon’s family immigrated legally to the United States in 1974, for better opportunities and to escape the Arab Ba’ath Party’s persecution. The family settled in Chicago where their relatives had arrived some years earlier.
Ramon graduated from the University of Illinois at Chicago in 1990, with a Bachelor’s degree in Math and Computer Science. He has been working professionally as a Software Developer for both large and small corporations since graduating college.
Ramon’s father instilled a love of the Assyrian nation in him at a young age, which motivated him to learn the painful and tormented history of his people. He was taught to only speak the Assyrian (Syriac-Aramaic) language at home to counteract the oppression by the ruling Arab nationalists of Iraq. He became involved in Assyrian cultural organizations and activities during college and has remained involved to one degree or another ever since. He was the president of the Assyrian Student’s Association at the University of Illinois at Chicago and an executive member of the Assyrian Academic Society for a few years. He is also an amateur painter and some of his Assyrian-themed paintings can be found on the internet used by fellow Assyrians on their websites.
Ramon is married to Antoinette Esho whose family is from one of the Assyrian villages along the Khabour River in northeastern Syria. Together they have two girls and one boy in Elementary and High schools in the Chicago area.
OBAMA ADMINISTRATION TAKES EXTRAORDINARY STEPS TO KEEP OUT CHRISTIAN REFUGEES
ImageThe Obama administration has done everything possible to block the way for Christian refugees fleeing ISIS terror in the Middle East who seek to enter America. This includes the arrest of 27 Iraqi Christians who had family in this country. They were held in detention for six months before 15 were deported. Five have been charged with immigration fraud for failing to list that their passports originated in Germany. The remainder remain in detention. Despite the fact that thousands are crossing the Mexican border illegally, then quickly being processed and released after being given hearing dates, this same treatment is not afforded to Christians fleeing the Middle East and entering the country across that same border.
The tactics used by the administration are disingenuous, since there is no longer any way for Iraqi Christians to obtain passports to legally leave the country, so they must obtain European or other passports to leave. And despite the fact that the administration is fighting to bring thousands of Muslims into the country which may have terror ties to ISIS, and which don’t readily assimilate, Christians who have families ready to receive them and churches ready to support them are being treated as criminals when they try to gain asylum.
The administration seems bent on continuing Christian persecution for those in this country as well. Along with the detainees, the Justice Department began investigating Iraqi-born, Chicago attorney Robert DeKelaita in 2008, shortly after he was victorious in having a report which had been relied upon to deny asylum to Christians, reversed as inaccurate. He has assisted thousands of asylum-seekers during his twenty year career, yet only 12 cases are at issue, all concerning Assyrian Christians who were subjected to harassment and intimidation before making statements.
After years of investigation, finally both he and his interpreter were indicted in September, 2014. But his trial date has been moved three times, from May to October 2015, and now to 2016 due to the inadmissibility of statements which did not hold up, which were taken from the 12 immigrants. During this time he has been unable to represent any other Christian asylum seekers, something which has caused outrage in the Assyrian Christian community.
The basis for the charges against him were claims that he falsified or exaggerated Christian persecution in Iraq. This is patently untrue, as anyone watching news reports today knows. We have witnessed beheadings, crucifixions, seizure of property, women taken as spoils of war and other gruesome events. Yet the Obama administration remains determined to prevent Christian asylum seekers from gaining sanctuary in the US, minimizing their persecution by going to the lengths noted above.
A recent, short but powerful video featuring nine Assyrian Christians has been released by MORE International in which they describe the persecution and terror which led them to flee ISIS, leaving behind everything they owned. It’s hard to claim that persecution is exaggerated, watching this:
Even European Parliament President Martin Schulz stated at a recent meeting on religious persecution held in Brussels that, “the persecution of Christians is ‘undervalued’ and does not receive enough attention, which has also meant that it “hasn’t been properly addressed.’”
And EP Vice President Antonio Tajani argued that, “For Islamists…Christians are the new ‘crusaders’ of Europe, and because of Islamic persecution in the Middle East more than 70 percent of Christians have fled Iraq since 2003, with another 700 thousand Christians who have been forced to leave their home in Syria since the outbreak of civil war…No religious community is as subject to hatred, violence and systematic aggression as the Christians.” He also intimated that where one religion is the problem, another religion can be the solution, something Obama ignores.
Available as your Talk Show Guest is Atty. Robert DeKelaita, Martin Manna, Atty. Carol Oshana or Fr. Gewargis Sulaiman who can explain what Christians are facing, as the war against them, both in the Middle East and in the US, creates rising persecution. The determination of the Obama administration to deny them asylum and to use any tactic, no matter how outrageous, to prevent their acceptance into the US reveals the determination of the Obama administration to ensure only Muslim refugees are admitted. With a majority of the American public opposed to Muslim immigration, and much of it committed to accepting Christians, the question is why?