U.S. immigrants react to ban: 'Our president is trying to divide us'
The nation's immigrants watched in trepidation Saturday as President Trump's immigration ban went into effect with abrupt results.
The executive order temporarily banning all refugees — as well as more specific restrictions on predominantly Muslim countries — drew lawsuits, protests and outrage on social media as travelers were stopped from boarding U.S-bound planes and detained at international airports.
Across the country, some immigrants already in the United States were enveloped in feelings of fear and uncertainty.
Phoenix - Ibado Mahmud
Ibado Mahmud came to the United States as a refugee in 1993 after fleeing the civil war in her native Somalia and spending more than two years living in a refugee camp in neighboring Kenya.
Today, she is one of 7,193 Somali refugees resettled in Arizona since 1992. It's a far cry from her old life. She recalls fleeing Somalia for her life with her husband and two young daughters in December 1990 and then driving in a car to Kenya with a caravan of nearly 50 other refugees. She saw people die and be raped.
"You heard the lions roaring every night," she said. "I used to wrap me and my two girls in long clothes so if the lion came, he would have to eat all three of us."
Since coming to the U.S., Mahmud has rebuilt her life in Arizona and raised seven children. She owns her own house and for the past 17 years has worked at Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport, alongside refugees from Iraq, Eritrea, Libya, Sudan, Ethiopia and many other countries.
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But Mahmud worries other refugees will not get the same chance because of Trump's decision Friday to temporarily freeze the arrival of all refugees and indefinitely halt the arrival of refugees from Syria.
"A lot of people are grateful to be here, to be part of this country. We appreciate what the United States did for us," the 56-year-old said. "We are hoping they will do many other great things to people who are hurting, that people who are dying for no reason, to people who don't have a life."
Mahmud said she has felt welcome in the U.S. but worries Trump's executive orders could lead to discrimination against Muslims like her.
"What I am scared of is that he is going to divide us," she said.
Louisville - Masjid Bilal Islamic Center
At the Masjid Bilal Islamic Center in West Louisville on Friday afternoon, dozens of refugees from Somalia, Syria and Iraq gathered for prayers. They said many were now cut off from ailing or impoverished family members who were trying to join them in the U.S., and some worried about what some called an atmosphere of “Islamophobia.” Advocates were organizing rallies of support.
"It is devastating," said Abanur Saidi, chairman of the mosque who also works with refugees for Catholic Charities and who is among thousands of Somalis in the Louisville region. "These are people that don't have anything to do with terrorism. They are victims of terror, that's why they are leaving their country."
Others said they worried the new Trump directive would be counter-productive.
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“This policy seems to be directed at the Muslims — and I’m really concerned that this decision will strengthen terrorists and extremist groups, they will have more material to brainwash people that America is against Islam,” said Mohammad Babar, a Muslim leader in Louisville.
Those at the Bilal mosque Friday were signing a petition organized by a coalition of refugee groups seeking to get 10,000 signatures before a planned rally next month. Leaders are urging supporters to write letters to legislators. Meantime, the Louisville Muslim Community and a coalition of groups said they would host an event Saturday to highlight the importance of dialogue and consider grassroots actions in the face of what they called "increasing Islamaphobia" and other issues.
“Our president is trying to divide us,” said Farhan Abdi, executive director of Muslim Americans for Compassion. He said refugees and immigrants are “doctors, teachers, lawyers, business owners, factory workers" who will "keep fighting to keep America welcoming.”
Rochester, N.Y. - Charlotte Gosso
Charlotte Gosso came to Rochester in December from Côte d'Ivoire via a refugee camp in Ghana; she was the first Ivoirian refugee here. Her prayers go to her country and her relatives there, the only ones she has.
There are only a handful of Ivoirians in Rochester, and it seems unlikely any more will be arriving.
Gosso thinks of a woman she knew in the refugee camp in Ghana. It would take Gosso up to three days to travel to Accra, the capital, for bureaucratic matters, and there was no one to watch her son while she was gone. The woman would help her, and give her some rice when she needed it to feed her sons.
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The woman and her husband would like to come to the United States, and Gosso would welcome them. She speaks only French and is confined to her small apartment unless someone can help her with Guy.
Lisa Hoyt, director of the Catholic Family Center's Refugee, Immigration & Language Services Department, described another case. A mother and seven children were supposed to arrive in Rochester on Tuesday. The family is Somali but is living in a refugee camp in Kenya.
The oldest of the children is 19. The youngest is 2. Their new life here is waiting. But someone in the group got sick, postponing their travel.
"Think about what's happened," she said. "These people literally could have missed this opportunity ... through no fault of their own."
Indianapolis - Abdul and Manal
Caught in the middle of the Syrian civil war, Abdul and Manal fled the bombs and the fighting in the city of Homs. In December 2015, after years in a refugee camp, the door opened for them to come to America and, more specifically, Indianapolis.
The young couple joined a tiny colony of Syrian refugees who’ve been relocated here by groups such as Catholic Charities, as in their case, and Exodus Refugee Immigration. In a little more than two years, Exodus has resettled 225 Syrians to Indianapolis. Catholic Charities has resettled 77 Syrians.
More than a year after their arrival, Abdul (whose full name is Abdul Sater Khaled Assaf) and Manal (al Khadour) are making a decent life for themselves and their two young daughters. But the immigration controversy leaves them fearful that the loved ones they left behind — namely Abdul’s parents and his brother — could be denied a similar rescue.
“I’m concerned a lot that they might not get to come,” Manal said in Arabic, through his Catholic Charities translator, Sajjad Jawad, himself once a refugee from Iraq.
Abdul and Manal say they like Indiana — even the weather, which they say is similar to Homs. But the joy of their new life is tempered by their awareness of the death and destruction they left behind in Syria. They worry about their family in refugee camps in Jordan, Lebanon and Turkey, where they say life is hard. They doubt they’ll ever see their homeland again.
Abdul has been picking up what he can about American politics. Asked if he could tell President Trump something about the Syrian refugee situation, he said: “I would tell him ‘Bring the refugees. Let them come. Because I lived with them. And I know the conditions.’ ”
Contributing: Daniel Gonzalez, The Arizona Republic; Chris Kenning, The (Louisville, Ky.) Courier-Journal; Brian Sharp, Justin Murphy, the Rochester (N.Y.) Democrat and Chronicle; and Robert King, The Indianapolis Star