On Friday, news broke on social media that Samuel Sey was arrested and is being held for ICE in Ohio. Samuel Sey is a blogger who was born in Ghana and moved to Canada, where he acquired citizenship, only to then marry an American and move to the states.
Arrest records show that Sey has been detained since the afternoon on the 21st. Typically, under Federal law ICE detainees are released after 48 hours, not including weekends. However, Butler County Jail has a contract with ICE to house immigration detainees long-term.Â
The odds are high ICE has something on the Sey’s status: expired visa, a stalled adjustment, an overstay, a database flag, etc. Pure administrative holds without local charges usually mean they see him as removable.
Christian Reaction And Hypocrisy
Christians took to social media on both sides of the Sey aisles. Samuel Sey had slandered many, including when he lied about a bomb threat and insinuated that it was a hate crime in connection with his preaching at a church. He was a foreigner who came and lectured Americans on their politics and even race relations (for which he has no insight into the Black community to speak on).
On the other side, Sey was a proponent of deportations, at least when its not him on the chopping block, something that the liberal media has glommed on to.
Christians by and large voted for mass deportations, yet prominent figures like Justin Peters, Tom Buck, Protestia, Allie Stuckey, and Megan Basham treated the incident as a mere misunderstanding, as though Samuel Sey’s faith absolves him of violating immigration law. Detractors of Samuel Sey want him gone for being a foreigner with bad table manners with regard to the host nation.
If Samuel Sey were not so prominent and had not proliferated as many parasocial relationships, these same Christian voices would not care that Immigration and Customs Enforcement detained him. But instead, they have carved out an exception for online microcelebrity because of a profession of faith. They are ultimately using his sob story to weaponize empathy and undermine resolve to deport illegal and legal immigrants.
One Response
Ray: Wait. “They are ultimately using his sob story to weaponize empathy and undermine resolve to deport illegal and legal immigrants.” What? “Undermine resolve to deport LEGAL immigrants”? So if legal immigrants are to be deported, we must all be deported? What are you trying to say?