Abdo Garba: Writ of mandamus and adjustment of status based on family

[Transcript]

Marriage and Family Residency petitions, US Citizenship

My name is Abdou Garba and I am from Nigeria, West Africa, Nigeria Republic and I came in 1997. I was brought to this country by a fiancé of mine that was in the Peace Corps. So I came here, we got a problem with the family and then we separated. Four years later I got married to a woman from Nigeria and then she came here and then we got divorced. And after that, I found my wife, right now and we have been married for six years now. So when I got married to her, since I was somebody that never has been in trouble: I have never been in court, I have never been in the police station, I have never done drugs, nothing, I though that my case was clean. And then, we went to immigration and I was not expecting to have a problem with them and now all of sudden, they asked me the first question: “ Were you married before?” and I said: “Yeah” and they came back to me: “That is not what we have in our record” and I was, “What are you talking about”. So you know the Immigration, when you have one single problem with them, it is over. My wife said, “no, lets get a good immigration lawyer”. So we hired a lawyer, and that lawyer, I am not saying he is not good, but he is not really into my case because its a small office, its him and his secretary. My wife was so mad at this immigration lawyer, she was like “this guy is not good, let’s go find another one” and I said “ok, let me go online”. I went online and I saw this name. I saw a lot of names but I saw this one and all the publicity around his firm and all that and I said “I have to try this one”. And we talked to him, he was working, he was really friendly and all that stuff. He dealt with you like, not like a client but like somebody he knows. When I walked in here I felt like I am at home, you know what I am saying? Because, because of him I am here. Because if it wasn´t because of him I´d be kicked out of this country, definitely. It is not about being in this country, It´s about being with my family, with my children, my kids. That´s what´s more powerful. When I think about everything he did, I don’t see all of this me being in this country, I see my children, so I am grateful to him that he did this, that´s all, you know.