Ded Rranxburgaj
Country of Origin: Albania
Time lived in United States: 21 years
Time in Sanctuary: 3 Years, 6 months
Sanctuary was a difficult time for 52-year-old Ded Rranxburgaj, an Albanian immigrant who has lived in the U.S. for the past 21 years. In 2019, while taking a smoke break on the rooftop of the Central United Methodist Church in downtown Detroit, where he had taken sanctuary the previous year, Ded said his life was getting harder with each passing day and he didn’t know how long he could take being cooped up. And that was without the knowledge that he would be trapped inside that church for another 2 ½ years.
Ded came to the U.S. in 2001 on a legal visa, which he overstayed. The man from Albania was a fixture at the Coney Island restaurant where he had worked for years without taking any time off. “I’ve made a million hotdogs for people,” he said through what almost resembled a smile. Like most of those targeted by the Trump administration, Ded had never had any trouble with the law in this country. He was just an immigrant who worked hard, paid taxes, helped to feed the homeless and who refused to abandon his wife Flora. They have been married for 30 years and he is her sole caregiver. She suffers from multiple sclerosis and is in a wheelchair. Flora was granted legal status for humanitarian reasons stemming from her illness. If Ded is deported, Flora will become a ward of the state.
Ded admitted that on some days, “Albania doesn’t seem so bad. At least I could walk around. Then I remember how it really was. And I can’t leave my wife. She was down to 72 pounds and in a wheelchair. I help her do everything, even go to the bathroom. And they tell me to just leave, leave her here to die with strangers. I won’t do that.”
It was winter when I visited with Ded and Flora. Ded told me winter was the worst time for them. The rooftop garden he tends to pass the time in the summer and which provides fresh vegetables to Detroit’s homeless population is nothing but dead brown stalks after the first freeze. And the crowd cheers from nearby Tiger stadium that let him pretend he’s at a game are also gone. There’s nothing left but cold and grey when he visits the roof to be alone.
Ded said in winter, he and Flora, are mostly trapped in their room staring at each other for hours on end with increasingly less to say. “If you don’t go out, if you don’t work or do anything, what do you have to talk about?”
How is Ded a threat to this country? That is a question no one can answer. He just wants to take care of his wife, make hotdogs, visit with his friends and watch baseball again.
Ded and Flora were able to leave Sanctuary in May, 2021. The church and Ded’s attorneys continue to seek a permanent remedy that will stop Ded’s deportation or need to reenter sanctuary in the future.