Manager of Boston restaurant released by ICE after over 100 days in custody
Paul Dama walked out of an immigration facility last week after more than 100 days in custody of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).
An immigration judge granted Dama asylum status due to fears of political persecution from his home country after he was kidnapped and held for ransom in 2018, according to his attorney, Abeba Attles.
The 46-year-old from Nigeria is a manager of Suya Joint, which has restaurants in Roxbury and Providence, R.I., and he came to the United States in 2019, fleeing the terrorist group Boko Haram, which had kidnapped him during his work as a journalist.
A huge smile was on Dama's face last Thursday as he left the immigration facility in Burlington with his sister, Cecelia Lizotte, who posted a video on Instagram .
"Yes, yes, yes," she says repeatedly as they walk away from the entrance. "I got my brother in the middle of the night. I don't know why they did this, but I am so happy to pick him up."
Dama was arrested by ICE in June on his way to church, according to a GoFundMe campaign started by another family member that raised more than $54,000.
"It feels great to be out," Dama said in a video shared by his attorney. "It's freedom at last. I never thought I was going to see this day, but it's finally here."
Dama shared his experience being detained in the video and said he wanted to share advice for people who encounter immigration authorities.
"It was really hard for me because getting locked up in a particular place, in a particular building, you are not allowed to go out, you are not allowed to do anything," Dama said. "But at the end of the day, everything worked out well. I was at my best behavior, even during the arrest. I cooperated with the officers. I didn't struggle nor resist arrest. And that's one of the advices I want to give people out there.
"When you see these guys, just cooperate with them. Don't fight. Because when you do, that triggers a different reaction from them," Dama said.
When correctional officers called his name on Thursday evening, the place "erupted with claps and shouts of joy," he told GBH News last Friday. He was then placed in restraints around his legs, hands and waist before being brought back to Massachusetts from New Hampshire, where he'd been held these last few months.
"Today, we celebrate freedom," Lizotte wrote in the Instagram post. "After months of unjust detention, our brother and community member, Paul Dama, has finally been granted asylum and released.
"Paul's story is not just about surviving an immigration system designed to break people down — it is about resilience, faith, and the unstoppable power of love and community."
She thanked the work of his attorney — Attles of the Attles Law Group — along with advocates from the Harvard Immigration & Refugee Clinical Program, "who fought tirelessly for his rights and never gave up on his case," she said.
ICE and the Department of Homeland Security, which oversees ICE, did not immediately return a request for comment on Monday.
Dama has authorization to work legally in the country, and he first applied for asylum in 2020. He was arrested despite having legal immigration status and a pending asylum case, his attorney said.
Boko Haram is a Nigerian-based group that seeks to overthrow the country's government and replace it with a regime based on Islamic law, according to the U.S. National Counterterrorism Center. The U.S. State Department designated Boko Haram a foreign terrorist organization in November 2013.
Dama worked for the Nigerian Television Authority but was kidnapped by Boko Haram and held captive for four days, according to The Boston Globe . His family raised funds and sold jewelry to secure his release by paying a $13,000 ransom to the terrorist group, the outlet reported.
He went to the police to tell them what happened after he escaped, but they offered little to no help, he told the Globe.
"The government seemed powerless fighting Boko Haram," he told the Globe.
The federal government has until Oct. 23 to appeal Dama's asylum case.
There were two separate criminal charges of operating a vehicle under the influence filed against Dama last year, but the immigration judge recognized his attempt at rehabilitation in granting asylum, his attorney said.
"The reason why he got into drinking — he didn't have this habit in the past — was what he faced back home and his mother's death ... He wasn't able to go back home to see her and go to her funeral, and that caused a major toll on him," Attles said.
Along with participating in several rehabilitation programs, Dama testified to the immigration judge that he's been seeing a therapist to cope with the grief and attending Alcoholics Anonymous meetings, according to his attorney.
Dama also worked as a social worker for Nexus Inc., The Boston Globe reported , and his boss visited him while he was detained in New Hampshire, Attles said.
Dama can apply for a green card in a year and then file for U.S. citizenship after five years, Attles said.
"He's probably resting and then will go back to work," Attles said about what's next for Dama.
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