Thread: Trump travel ban 3 may shatter my family forever — and it's not even needed

Trump travel ban 3 may shatter my family forever — and it's not even needed

Eblal Zazkok, Opinion contributor Published 12:01 a.m. ET Oct. 16, 2017

I'll tell you my story and you can decide whether this newest ban is moral, necessary or American in character.

Despite what some may think, coming to the United States is far from easy. While I’m now teaching at Ohio State University, I was once a professor in my native Aleppo, Syria. Reluctantly, I fled my homeland after life became unbearable and I was tortured by the Assad regime. My wife, my children, and I faced a veritable gauntlet of screening procedures before we were granted asylum. My 19-year old son was forced to stay behind for an additional two years of screening, and was finally approved just last week. I know from personal experience that the U.S. visa vetting system is already very thorough — and that President Trump’s latest travel ban is not necessary to keep Americans safe.

The main reason I’m speaking out is because the ban, if allowed to move forward, will have a tragic and personal impact on the lives of many Americans and those whom they love most. Yes, the ban is contrary to the traditional American values I’ve come to love. But its damage will go far beyond contradicting our values. Real people — wives, children, siblings and parents, who might otherwise find safety in the country that saved my life — will face separation and unspeakable harm if the ban is implemented.

I’ll tell you my story and the stories of two of my co-plaintiffs in a lawsuit aimed at stopping Trump’s third travel ban from taking effect, and you can decide whether this newest ban is moral, necessary or American in character.

For my family, the ban is personal. When I was granted asylum, one member of my family — my eldest daughter Turkie — was left out. She was over 21 so she did not qualify. As soon as I became a legal permanent resident, I filed a petition to reunite Turkie with our family, and it is still pending. If the ban goes through, simply because she is Syrian, Turkie will be barred from coming here and our family may remain forever shattered. We miss her more than I could ever put into words.

Of course, I want Turkie to have the opportunity to experience the same richness of American life that I have — in fact, she’s already been accepted to study English Literature at Ohio State, if she can ever get here. But I’m even more worried about her safety. She’s currently stuck as a refugee in Turkey, where Syrian girls and women are frequently targeted by criminals. And she could be deported back to Syria, where her life would be at even greater risk. The house we used to own there is now a pile of rubble. There is nothing left there for Turkie or the rest of our family.

Getting Turkie to safety is something I never stop thinking about. If the courts block the ban, like they did the previous two, then there is real hope for my family to be made whole again. But lately, I haven’t just been bearing my own burden. My involvement with this lawsuit has shown me just how many American families will be grievously harmed if the ban is put in place.

Fahed Muqbil is one of my co-plaintiffs in the case. An American citizen who moved to Louisiana from Yemen when he was just a year old, he now lives in Mississippi. Fahed met his wife in Yemen in 2012 while visiting family. Together they have two daughters, both U.S. citizens. With the U.S. embassy in Yemen closed due to the country’s civil war, it has taken longer than he ever dreamed to get his wife here legally.

Fahed had planned to stay with his wife until her travel to the U.S. could be approved, but on Nov. 9, 2016, their second daughter was born with a severe birth defect, requiring intensive medical treatment in the U.S. Fahed’s petition to have his wife join him in the U.S. to help take care of their sick daughter was approved in August, but is pending final approval following a visa interview. The ban would indefinitely separate her from her sick daughter — an inhuman and immoral consequence that does nothing to keep America safe.

Sumaya Hamadmad, another co-plaintiff, is also an American citizen and, like me, an Ohioan. Her sister is legally Syrian but has never lived in Syria, and was in fact born in Jordan. Because of her unique professional qualifications, she has been invited by a renowned U.S. university to participate in a scientific research project. If the ban goes forward, she’ll be unable to visit her sister and other family here, and a top American university will be deprived of her significant contributions to the field of genetic research — simply because of her Syrian heritage. What sense does it make to ban some of the brightest minds from coming to our shores simply because of an irrational fear of their country of origin?

My hope is that those who read these stories will understand that the president’s attack on people from Syria, Yemen and other Muslim countries — his effort to live up to a despicable and un-American campaign promise — does not simply have abstract costs. If the ban takes effect, thousands will suffer, including some of our own American citizens, many of them Muslims, and all of them human.

Our case will be argued in federal court Monday in Maryland, just two days before the Oct. 18 ban is supposed to begin. We have reason to hope. After all, courts stopped the previous versions of the ban. Despite everything, we will continue to have faith in the American legal system to protect us and our loved ones, and the American people who have already welcomed us with open arms.

Eblal Zazkok is a lecturer at Ohio State University's College of Engineering.

https://www.usatoday.com/story/opini...mns/766036001/

Of course, I want Turkie to have the opportunity to experience the same richness of American life that I have — in fact, she’s already been accepted to study English Literature at Ohio State, if she can ever get here. But I’m even more worried about her safety. She’s currently stuck as a refugee in Turkey, where Syrian girls and women are frequently targeted by criminals. And she could be deported back to Syria, where her life would be at even greater risk. The house we used to own there is now a pile of rubble. There is nothing left there for Turkie or the rest of our family.

None of this is our problem, neither you nor your family or children are our responsibility. You're from a country of yous, that's right youz guys, Syrians, who have destroyed your country, caused millions of refugees burdening other countries, tried to overthrow your own government, let ISIS take over 2/3rds of your country, and collectively turned it into a place you've made so bad that your daughter fled to Turkey and you're afraid to return to it. People like you did this to your country. YOU DID IT. We want no more of YOUS coming here. The good people of Syria are still in Syria, rebuilding their nation, and that's where they shall remain and if you're such a good person, you need to pack up your family and your engineering knowledge, go home and use your talents whatever they may be to fix this mess you and your fellow Syrians created.

If the ban goes forward, she’ll be unable to visit her sister and other family here, and a top American university will be deprived of her significant contributions to the field of genetic research — simply because of her Syrian heritage. What sense does it make to ban some of the brightest minds from coming to our shores simply because of an irrational fear of their country of origin?

You mean the same irrational fear that brought you here as a '"refugee"? We don't need foreign researchers from Jordan or engineering professors from Syria. What we need is our country back from YOUS. You don't understand how fed up Americans are with this massive immigration.

We are so tired of the excuses, the meddling in our affairs, the disruption to our own lives and jobs and livelihoods and resources that you cause by coming here. Our own government is out of control by having allowed it, that's one of the reasons why President Trump was elected, to help US take actions to regain control of our own country again and put an end to this nonsense, the same nonsense that brought you here to begin with.

There must be safe zones for foreign citizens in their own nations or nearby. They can believe and live as they desire.

Refugee resettlement should be lessened more and more. We do not need false claims from some in our government that it threatens our national security. We have means of leverage against foreign nations to push back on that idea. We give billions to foreign nations.

Syria is safe to return to now. The war is over. Trump ended that first thing, 4 or 5 months ago. Russians provide security and order. Russians are very good at this sort of thing, there's no reason for any of these refugees not to get their asses back to Syria and rebuild this mess they caused.

Go "build America" on your soil and have a "rich life".

He is a teacher...go TEACH on your soil and educate YOUR people.

Temporary refugee status is OVER...safe to go back and reunite with your family.

Get them ALL out of here! No CHAIN migration!

Originally Posted by Judy

Syria is safe to return to now. The war is over. Trump ended that first thing, 4 or 5 months ago. Russians provide security and order. Russians are very good at this sort of thing, there's no reason for any of these refugees not to get their asses back to Syria and rebuild this mess they caused.

FAKE NEWS ALERT. Trump didn't end the conflict in Syria 4 or 5 months ago. There is still conflict in Syria. As we speak there is a battle between the Kurdish led forces and the Islamic State group in Raqqa. Syrian president Bashar-al-Assad is a murderous tyrant and Russia protects and provides military aid to him as a means to serve their own personal interest in the region. Russia has been complicit in the mass murder of Syrian civilians by Syria's president, Bashar-al-Assad.

For all the Islamic State's horrendous brutality, let's not forget that the Assad regime has been the main source of death and destruction in Syria. So in the end, once the Islamic State is crushed in Syria, the civilian population will still have to deal with the murderous tryrant Bashar-al-Assad. While the situation in Syria is complex, removing Assad has to be part of any long term plan because until that happens Syria's civilian population well never truly be safe.

As for Russia, they've taken a big role in the Syrian conflict but have done very little to nothing for the civilian population. If anyone should be taking in Syrian refugees, it should be Russia. They're the ones backing and supporting a regime that gave the Islamic State a foothold in Syria.

ISIS Capital Raqqa Will Fall Within Hours or Days, Kurdish Militia Says

Deal underway for ISIS fighters to leave city with civilians as human shields ■ Over 100 ISIS fighters surrendered in last 24 hours ■ 'Difficult fight' still ahead

Reuters Oct 14, 2017 6:38 PM

Islamic State is on the verge of defeat in Raqqa, once its de facto Syrian capital, and the city may finally be cleared of the jihadists on Saturday or Sunday, the Syrian Kurdish YPG militia told Reuters.

A local official said tribal elders were seeking to broker a deal where remaining Islamic State fighters, including foreigners, would leave the city, taking civilians with them as human shields.

The Syrian Democratic Forces, backed by airstrikes and special forces from a U.S.-led international coalition, have been battling since June to oust Islamic State from Raqqa, a base that it had used to plan attacks against the West.

The retaking of Raqqa will be a major milestone in efforts to roll back the theocratic "caliphate" that Islamic State declared in Syria and Iraq, where earlier this year it was driven from the city of Mosul.

"The battles are continuing in Raqqa city," YPG spokesman Nouri Mahmoud, whose group dominates the SDF, told Reuters by telephone. "Daesh (Islamic State) is on the verge of being finished. Today or tomorrow, the city may be liberated."

The U.S.-led coalition said a convoy was set to depart Raqqa on Saturday under an arrangement brokered by local officials.

Its statement said the coalition was not involved in the discussions, and described the arrangement as "a civilian evacuation."

Its spokesman, Col. Ryan Dillon, said the coalition's stance was that Islamic State fighters must surrender unconditionally, but added that he could not comment on who would be in the convoy. He said difficult fighting was expected in the days ahead.

'Saving innocent lives'

The coalition statement said the arrangement brokered by the Raqqa Civil Council and local Arab tribal elders on October 12 was "designed to minimize civilian casualties and purportedly excludes foreign Daesh terrorists."

The coalition believed the arrangement would "save innocent lives and allow Syrian Democratic Forces and the coalition to focus on defeating Daesh terrorists in Raqqa with less risk of civilian casualties", it said.

Omar Alloush, a member of the Raqqa Civil Council, set up to run Raqqa after it is freed from Islamic State, said the 100 Islamic State fighters who had already surrendered had been convinced to do so during talks with the tribal elders.

"Others didn't surrender, so now they're looking for a plan where they (ISIS) leave and take civilian hostages with them to another place far from the city, and then release the civilians," he told Reuters in an interview in Ain Issa, north of Raqqa. The Islamic State fighters would go to remaining territory held by the group in Syria, he said.

The deal could happen as soon as Saturday, he said.

A tribal leader said he expected the evacuation to take place on Saturday or Sunday.

Buses arrive

An activist group that reports on Raqqa, Raqqa Is Being Slaughtered Silently, said on its Facebook page that dozens of buses had entered Raqqa city overnight from the countryside to the north.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a British-based organisation that reports on the war, said Syrian Islamic State fighters and their families had already left the city, and buses had arrived to evacuate remaining foreign fighters and their families.

The Syrian army, which is supported by Iran-backed militias and the Russian air force, declared another significant victory over Islamic State on Saturday, saying it had captured the town of al-Mayadin in Deir al-Zor province.

The eastern province is Islamic State's last major foothold in Syria, and it is under attack there from the SDF on one side and Syrian government forces supported by Iran-backed militias and Russian air strikes on the other.

Islamic State fighters had previously agreed to an evacuation last August, from an area on the Syrian-Lebanese border.

But as their convoy moved towards Islamic State-held territory in eastern Syria, coalition planes blocked its route by cratering roads, destroying bridges and attacking nearby Islamic State vehicles.

read more: https://www.haaretz.com/middle-east-news/syria/1.817164

ISIS facing imminent collapse in Syria's Raqqa

Associated Press Published 12:32 p.m. ET Oct. 14, 2017

BEIRUT — Syrian government forces and their allies on Saturday said they seized the town of Mayadeen, an Islamic State stronghold in the country’s east, in a major gain in the race for territories previously held by the militant group.

The announcement came as U.S.-backed Syrian Democratic Forces said they were in the “final” battle for control of Raqqa, the ISIS' de facto capital and the symbol of the group’s reign of terror. However, officials with the Kurdish-led SDF said it could be hours or days before ISIS is uprooted from the city, to the north of Mayadeen.

Over the past months, Mayadeen had become a refugee for the IS leadership from Syria and Iraq as its self-proclaimed caliphate crumbled.

The town, on the western bank of the Euphrates River, was also a major node in the race for control of the oil-rich eastern Deir el-Zour province that straddles the border with Iraq.

SDF has steadily been making a bid for areas in the province, securing territory to the east of the river as the U.S.-backed offensive focused on the Iraq border area, still controlled by ISIS.

Washington fears further advances by Syrian government forces could help Iran, which backs militias fighting alongside the Syrian military, expand its influence across the region by securing a land route extending from from Iraq, Syria and Lebanon, all the way to Israel.

As the Syrian government launched its Deir el-Zour offensive in September, the U.S.-backed forces diverted some fighters from Raqqa toward Deir el-Zour to secure the Iraqi border. This prompted the government troops and allied militiamen to push south to Mayadeen, finally securing the town on Saturday.
ADVERTISING

The fall of Mayadeen would strangle ISIS militants in the city of Deir el-Zour, cutting their supply route from the south and the desert.

The pro-government Al-Ikhbariya TV quoted an unnamed Syrian military official as saying that ISIS’ defenses in Mayadeen collapsed on Saturday, with troops chasing last ISIS fighters out of town as corps of engineers cleared land mines.

Rami Abdurrahman, the head of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said government troops, backed by Shiite militias, have control of the town but are still combing it for militants.

With ISIS under fire in Deir el-Zour and Raqqa, the only remaining urban stronghold still in the militants’ hand is Boukamal, a strategic border town that had linked ISIS territory in Syria and Iraq.

Meanwhile, the US-backed Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces, said the ISIS militants were putting up a desperate fight in its few remaining neighborhoods in Raqqa, spokesman Mustafa Bali, said. The U.S. coalition said about 85% of Raqqa was now controlled by the SDF.

Scores of civilians were seen in a video that surfaced Friday leaving Raqqa in desperate and terrified condition. They emerged from destroyed districts, some of them collapsing on the ground in exhaustion as they arrive to a Kurdish-held area of the city, in haunting scenes reflecting their years-old ordeal. Earlier this week, U.S. officials said an estimated 4,000 civilians are believed still trapped in the city.

Omar Alloush, a local Raqqa official, told The Associated Press on Friday that about 100 ISIS militants surrendered at once.

The Observatory said negotiations over the fate of foreign fighters who remain in Raqqa have delayed the final push to regain control of the city. But SDF officials deny there are talks to evacuate ISIS fighters. U.S. officials have said that only surrender, not a negotiated withdrawal for ISIS fighters in Raqqa, would be accepted while the top U.S. envoy for the anti-IS coalition Brett McGurk had said earlier foreign fighters in Raqqa will die in the city.

Losing Raqqa, in many ways the symbol of ISIS’ caliphate, would be yet another blow to the militant group and its reign of terror in the region as its strongholds crumble one after another in Iraq and other parts of Syria.

Still, the U.S.-led coalition said it expects “difficult fighting” in the days ahead to completely oust IS from the city and secure it. SDF and U.S. officials said the remaining militants are mostly suicide bombers who only have small arms and rifles. With a small area remaining, they have no access to their weapon of choice, car bombs, said Bali, the SDF spokesman.

“Our forces are waging the final phase of the battle of the presence of 'Daesh' in Raqqa. We have not decided if this battle will last hours, days or weeks,” Bali said, using the Arabic name for ISIS.

Militants seized Raqqa in 2014, the first city to fall under the full control of the extremist group. It became synonymous with ISIS’ reign of terror, with public killings and beheadings — videotaped slayings that have shocked the world. It was also from Raqqa, which became a destination for foreign fighters from around the world, that many of IS’ attacks in the West were plotted.

The latest battle for Raqqa began in June, with heavy street-by-street fighting amid intense U.S.-led coalition airstrikes and shelling. The battle has dragged on in the face of stiff resistance from the militants and civilians trapped in the city.

On Saturday, the SDF said they seized the al-Nahda neighborhood in Raqqa’s western sector. A day earlier, ISIS carried out an offensive on SDF forces near the city’s main hospital, an ISIS fortified headquarters.

https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/...qqa/764695001/

That still doesn't change the fact that the conflict is still going on. It didn't end 4 or 5 months ago as you stated. The truth matters.