Following a protracted, 50-odd month legal nightmare, including six torturous months spent waiting for a judge's final decision, Kirkland's beloved Siddick family no longer lives under the black cloud of deportation.
Ayoob and Amida Siddick and their four children - three of whom have graduated from Lake Washington High School - have been granted political asylum in the United States. They finally are free of the corrupt reign of Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe, whose government seized land from farmers, leaving thousands unemployed and homeless. Amida told the Courier in March, "People are starving. I mean, people are eating roots from trees ... just to survive."
Deportation would mean tragedy
Family patriarch Ayoob Siddick, who is the facilities manager at his children's high school alma mater, had owned a steel fabrication business and commercial farm in Zimbabwe. He also was actively involved in the Movement for Democratic Change, an opposition group whose members suffered rape, imprisonment or death. It was for this reason that the Siddicks so feared deportation.
In addition, Siddick feared that his Pakistani ancestry would add fuel to the fire, further defining them as targets for abuse were they to return to Zimbabwe.
In the end U.S. Immigration Judge Victoria Young agreed, and on Sept. 6 awarded the family their ticket to freedom. The Department of Homeland Security has the right to appeal the judge's decision within 30 days, however. Assuming there are no appeals, the family can apply for permanent resident status in one year. Five years after that, the family can apply for citizenship.
In the end, the resolute fortitude and mettle of this family earned them a right to call the United States their home. Soft-spoken Amida, who works in the data processing department at the same high school, attributes their success to "the people in the community, the people in the high school. Everywhere. This is what brought us to this point."
The family, whose odyssey often has been documented since it commenced in 2001, has received thousands of dollars from local fund-raisers to help pay for lawyers and associated legal fees.
Couldn't afford a house in Kirkland
In a bitter twist of fate: The same community that has been so emotionally and financially supportive cannot offer this family an affordable house. Instead, they purchased a house in Snohomish County, but still plan to work at LW. They planned to move at the end of September.
"From the time we came to the U.S. we lived in Kirkland," Amida said. It was our dream to buy a home [in the United States] but it's never worked out."
Finally, a month before the decision - in August - their dream came true. Unfortunately, not in the city that's embraced them for the past six years. "We cannot afford a home in Kirkland," Amida says plainly.
"All I know is that I'm so happy," she continues. "Before, I think we were surviving. Now we can be living. That's what we were doing. Surviving on the edge."[[In-content Ad]]
