2018 Gala
Senator Al Franken: Statement on 2018 Advocate of the Year
I first want to thank The Immigrant Law Center for all their great work and especially for their partnership with my Senate office – particularly with our constituent service office. Miranda Morgan Lilla, who continues to head that office under Senator Smith, is the real hero in the Mushkaad Abdi story.
The four-year-old had been living in a refugee camp in Uganda, separated from her mother and two sisters living in Minnesota. Miranda had heard her story from her mother’s citizenship class teacher in July 2016, and began working with the Department of State, and Lutheran Social Services agreed to sponsor Mushkaad in August of that year. After months of Miranda’s effort, Mushkaad was scheduled to arrive on January 31, 2017.
On January 27th President Trump issued his (illegal) Muslim ban executive order, and it appeared that instead of being reunited with her family, Mushkaad would remain separated indefinitely. Miranda got to work on her end, and we called a press conference in Minneapolis the cruelty of the President’s executive order, where we reconnected with Mushkaad’s family. I called then-Department of Homeland Security Secretary John Kelly and got his assurance that Mushkaad would be able to make the trip.
Working with the Customs and Bureau Protection Agency, Miranda cleared the way for Mushkaad to make the trip to Minnesota via Abu Dhabi and Chicago, and she was reunited with her mother and three sisters in early February 2017. A few weeks later, I met Mushkaad, a bubbly four-year old, grinning happily in her mother’s embrace.
Al Franken