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Carrboro resident’s case to be heard

Posted on April 18, 2007April 18, 2007 by Staff


Sima Fallahi and her daughter Leila at home in Carrboro. Photo by Jackie Helvey Courtesy of Carrboro.com

By Taylor Sisk
Staff Writer

Carrboro resident Sima Fallahi and her daughter, Leila, were due good news. They got some this past Monday when Fallahi was informed by her attorneys that an immigration judge had granted a motion to reopen her deportation case. A preliminary hearing will take place in Atlanta on June 7, at which time the judge will provide a deadline for Fallahi’s attorneys to present documentation in support of her political asylum case and will set a date for a full hearing.

On November 29, Fallahi was detained when she went to the Chapel Hill Police Station to pick up a street vendor’s permit to sell her art. Fallahi is an Iranian who came to this country 12 years ago on a student visa and, after attending Guilford Technical Community College and UNC-Greensboro, has lived with Leila, 11, in Carrboro for six years.

Fallahi had been driven to the station by a friend; she was soon on her way to the Orange County Jail. In the course of a background check conducted when Fallahi had applied for her vendor’s permit, the police had discovered there was a removal order for her and they contacted the Immigration and Naturalization Service. Fallahi was subsequently sent to the Mecklenburg County Jail. Her deportation seemed imminent.

On March 6, though, Fallahi was allowed to go home. According to Randall Stroud, one of her attorneys, it was determined she wasn’t a flight risk and she was released under an order of supervision.

Now, says Stroud, “Sima is right back where she was in ’99.” He’s referring to the time at which Fallahi applied for citizenship. “She initiated contact with the government and said ‘I want to apply for citizenship.’”

But in 2001, said Stroud, after a hearing was scheduled in Atlanta, Fallahi was told by her attorney at the time that she didn’t have to attend. “She was misinformed,” Stroud said, and her request to remain in the U.S. was denied. The circumstances of that experience were the basis for Fallahi’s attorneys’ motion for a new hearing. “We think it’s a good claim,” Stroud said.
But he cautions that the decision to reopen Fallahi’s case gives no indication of how it might be decided.

In the meantime, mother and daughter continue their routines. The two are familiar faces at Weaver Street Market. Fallahi’s landscape paintings have hung in the Carrboro Town Hall.
Fallahi is confronting considerable legal expenses. To learn more about the particulars of her case, go to www.carrboro.com/sima. To see a selection of Fallahi’s pencil portraits, visit her website: http://simafallahi.com.

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