Atlanta asylum seeker's son deported to South Africa

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By Aaron Edwards

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

The son of an African woman living in Atlanta has been deported to South Africa after a long battle between the family and the federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency.

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Rev. Timothy McDonald III (left) speaks at a rally in support of a family facing deportation to South Africa as Malcolm Mathe (right) looks on. Mathe, his mother Hope and two siblings could be sent back to South Africa after their request for asylum was denied.

Aaron Edwards, aedwards@ajc.com Rev. Timothy McDonald III (left) speaks at a rally in support of a family facing deportation to South Africa as Malcolm Mathe (right) looks on. Mathe, his mother Hope and two siblings could be sent back to South Africa after their request for asylum was denied.

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Andy Mathe, 24, was sent back to South Africa on a Delta flight Tuesday night, according to an immigration activist group that has been following the family's case.

Mathe had been detained by ICE after being arrested on a theft charge, which was later dropped. . Mathe's mother Hope Karekezi had been fighting for her son's release for weeks.

"I feel helpless," Karekezi told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution shortly after hearing the news from ICE.

Activist organizations continue to fight for the rest of the family's asylum, though their initial appeal had been denied. Karekezi and her other two children Malcolm, 19, and Shammah, 9, could be deported Aug. 2 when ICE does a routine check-up on the family.

Karekezi's father-in-law was a soldier in the Rwandan army, making her family a target for genocide revenge attacks in South Africa. Karekezi, in applying for political asylum in the United States, claimed she was stalked at her home and her daughter was nearly kidnapped.