In January, Youngstown, Ohio businessman Amer Adi was deported, leaving his community to mourn a “hell of a man”. Amer had lived in the U.S. for nearly forty years, was married to a citizen and had four U.S. citizen daughters, had never committed any crimes, and was credited with helping to revitalize downtown Youngstown.
Amer’s story spread far and wide, eventually leading singer-songwriter and music producer Tom Manche — originally from Youngstown but now living in Nashville — to write a song about Amer and his family.
Here’s an excerpt of the lyrics:
Welcome Home, Welcome Home
A warm and tearful greeting
From family and friends
Welcome Home, Welcome Home
This can’t be the way my story ends‘Cuz Youngstown is my home…
I landed there with nothing as a young man long ago
And gradually created quite a life.
I built a family business, made a ton of friends
And raised four lovely daughters with my sweet devoted wife
In Youngstown, back in Youngstown
When asked why he wrote the song, Tom said:
Like many Americans, I’ve been stunned and disappointed in the toxic political atmosphere since the ascendancy of Donald Trump. It pervades every aspect of government, to be sure, but as regards the immigration issue, I don’t think there’s a more potent example of mean-spirited, misguided overreach by ICE than the case of Amer Adi.
Here you have a highly regarded local entrepreneur (a job creator, not a job taker!), loving family man, and all-’round good guy, by all accounts, who was unceremoniously (and apparently, underhandedly) booted from the country he loves and has contributed to for decades. That’s not in line with the guiding principles of America as I thought I understood them.
By writing “Welcome Home (Amer’s Song)” I hope to shed a little light on what I view as an unjust abuse of power and, in a perfect world, aid in Amer’s struggle to reunite his family in the country he calls home. If it raises awareness of these hard line tactics perhaps it can spare other families the pain and upheaval that Amer’s family has endured. How about we ‘Make America Kind Again’?
Please share “Welcome Home (Amer’s Song)” with your friends and family. We want it to raise awareness about American families being separated by hardline deportations, and the need to make them whole again.