Fleeing their war-torn countries was hard enough, said local immigrants interviewed Monday. Now, President Donald Trump’s travel ban is doubling down on the damage by “ripping families apart.”
The executive order he signed on Friday froze refugee resettlement and travel to the United States for nationals of seven Muslim-majority countries — Syria, Ira q, Iran, Lybia, Yemen, Sudan and Somalia — igniting international outrage.
Basileus Zeno, a Syrian with pending asylum status who is pursuing a doctorate in political science at UMass Amherst, said Monday he fears his brother could be a casualty of the “discriminatory” decision.
“I call this the invisible genocide, because you can’t see the blood of the people — as they’re dying in silence, no one is watching them, so it’s ok,” he said, adding his mother was not able to obtain a visa and is stuck in Damascus with his father. “‘Don’t disturb our dreams, go die far away’ — unfortunately that’s the logic of some of the people here and some of the politicians.”
Zeno said his brother had waited for nearly two years for a visa that would allow him to unite with his wife and 18-month-old son, only to be turned away from his plane at an airport in Turkey. “There wasn’t anyone from the embassy to facilitate this confusion,” he said. “No one was there.”
Zeno said he eagerly awaited the opportunity to see his brother for the first time in five years. Instead, he watched him cry before Turkish news cameras.
“It really literally killed me — seeing your brother humiliated and you can’t even hug him,” he said, adding now he’s stuck in a dangerous city in which a family friend of theirs was recently killed.
This is my brother a #Syrian #refugee he was banned from boarding his flight from #Istanbul 2 #LAX to join his child&wife.This is a torture pic.twitter.com/AOuHwThCKD
— Basileus Zeno (@BasileusZeno) January 29, 2017
“This decision might actually endanger the life of my brother,” he said. “There are many, many ways of making America great again, but not by torturing people.”
One local Somali immigrant said Monday Donald Trump’s travel ban harkens back to the dictatorship she fled from when she was 13. Yasmin Ahmed now works in refugee resettlement for Jewish Family Service of Western Massachusetts, helping people like her family. She said the order prevented her sister-in-law — who has been in the vetting process for 18 years — from coming to the U.S. with her eight children. Ahmed said she was already making preparations for their arrival and is now unsure what to expect.
“I’m very fearful for what the future holds for family members, for refugees,” she said.
“I don’t know what more vetting that we’re looking for, but to me personally I feel like this specifically targeted people who are Muslim.”
She said refugees aren’t resettled over night, people like her family are kept in refugee camps and involved in a years-long process before they can enter the U.S.
“We’re talking about women and children and elderly people with medical conditions that are trying to flee from violence,” she said. “It takes so much courage for someone to leave their homeland — you’re leaving everything you know behind to make a better life for you and your children.”
Iranian immigrant Ali Kasemkhani, a Northampton dentist and filmmaker, said he was expecting a visit from his friend, who has an Iranian passport. Now he’s not sure she’s coming. “Now she won’t because she’s afraid of being detained at the airport,” he said, adding she was granted an American visa before Trump issued the order on Friday.
“It’s affecting a lot of people, unfortunately,” he said. “It is not right.”
While he said he thinks the American dream remains alive — he’s living it, he says — Trump’s actions to-date have rapidly changed the world’s opinion of the U.S.
“They look to American society as an ideal,” he said, though “Trump basically ruined it.”
He said people coming from the seven countries listed are coming to the U.S. to work hard and achieve success, to live peaceful and productive lives.
“They’re running for their lives, so they don’t see their kids dragged out from under buildings, or get beheaded,” he said.
And he said the fact that Trump promised Christian refugees preferential treatment will only do more damage.
“If you create an exemption for one religion and persecute another, it’s just going to create more hatred,” he said.
Growing up Muslim, he said he was taught killing was a sin. “It’s a peaceful religion,” he said, adding it should not be defined by those in masks beheading people. “This is not Islam.”
Kasemkhani’s friend Hamidreza Shojaei is working toward a doctorate in physics at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. He said he hasn’t been home to see his family in Iran in seven years because it means he would have to reapply for the visa. Now, it seems, the fear was justified.
He said he’s worried he made a mistake in coming to the U.S. to study. He’s concerned his student visa will not easily carry over to a work visa. Plus, he said, “companies may be hesitant to hire people from Iran.”
“It’s a disappointing thing to see,” he said, adding he had long thought if he came to the U.S. and worked hard, he would succeed. “It’s sad.”
Both Shojaei and Kasemkhani said despite Trump’s order, they’re proud to live in Northampton, where they feel the majority of people oppose such discriminatory policies. “Some call it Paradise Lost, but I call it heaven found,” said Kasemkhani. “We all create Northampton.”
Amanda Drane can be contacted at adrane@gazettenet.com.