Siouxcityjournal
Sunday February 5, 2017
SOUTH SIOUX CITY | Like any proud father, Ali Omar's face lights up when asked if he has photos of his kids.
The Somali refugee pulls out his cellphone and scrolls through pictures, then holds out his phone to show off one of which he's especially fond. In it, four of his seven children, dressed in their best clothes, stand smiling outside the U.S. Embassy in Kampala, Uganda.
On that day last June, Omar's wife and seven children interviewed with immigration authorities -- their next step in the process to join Omar in the United States. They were one step closer to reuniting with their family after being apart for nine years.
It was a happy day, as evidenced by the smiles on the faces of Omar's children.
That happiness has been replaced by frustration and uncertainty since President Donald Trump signed an executive order on Jan. 27 that suspended all refugee resettlement and entry into the United States of people from seven Muslim-majority countries, including Somalia.
Prior to that action, Omar regularly called his family. Now he must wait for his wife, Sadio, to call him.
He can't call anymore, he said, because his knows his youngest daughter -- 6 months old the last time he saw her and now 10 years old -- will answer the phone and ask him questions that are too painful to hear.
"When I call she asks me why did they refuse to let us see you?" Omar says, tears welling in his eyes. "I don't even have an answer for that."
The travel ban Trump signed suspended all refugee settlement in the United States for 120 days and refugee resettlement from Syria indefinitely. Also suspended for 90 days was entry by citizens of Iran, Iraq, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria and Yemen on immigrant or nonimmigrant visas. Since issuing the order, the administration has clarified language in the travel ban, allowing some people initially denied entry to come into the United States.
The action, which administration officials say is needed while they determine how to strengthen vetting procedures to prevent terrorists from the majority-Muslim nations from entering the United States, has suspended all applications for visas, leaving dozens of Somalis who have settled in South Sioux City uncertain of when family members who were in the process of resettling here might be able to come.
"The president just signed a paper and everything got stopped, and I couldn't believe that happened," said Hassan Osman, a Somali whose wife, Safiyo Omar, had been scheduled for an interview on Feb. 28 at the U.S. Embassy in Nairobi, Kenya, her last step in the application for a visa that would allow her to join Osman here. That interview has been canceled.
"She's stressed out. There's nothing I can do," said Osman, a South Sioux City truck driver who came to the United States in 2000, moved to South Sioux City in 2009 and became a U.S. citizen in 2010.
MANY AFFECTED
South Sioux City immigration lawyer Heidi Oligmueller estimates that about 1,000 Somalis live in and near South Sioux City. Oligmueller, who also sits on the board of directors of the Mary J. Treglia Community House, a Sioux City organization that helps immigrants, said there are also a number of immigrants from the African nation of Sudan, but very few that she knows of from the other five countries named in the travel ban.
Oligmueller has roughly 100 Somali clients, she said, and nearly all have been affected by the travel ban. Many are working through the costly process of bringing family members to the United States.
Some who have lived here for less than two years were in the midst of applying for their own lawful permanent resident status -- their so-called green card. That process, too, has been halted, and if they were to leave the country to visit their families, they would be denied re-entry.
Since the ban was announced, Oligmueller's office has been flooded with phone calls from her Somali clients. Seats in the waiting area at her office often are filled with concerned Somalis, some who aren't her clients, who have questions about what is going to happen with family members' applications to come to the United States.
Like Rahma Ali, many of the Somali natives settled in the Sioux City metro area to work at the Tyson Fresh Meats beef plant in Dakota City. Ali came to the United States as a refugee in 2010 and has lived in South Sioux City since May 2013. She became a U.S. citizen last year and is trying to get her husband and two sons here from a refugee camp in Kenya. They had completed all the steps required to get a visa and were told they would be able to come to the United States this month. Their case is now on hold.
Halimo Wardhire became a U.S. citizen in 2012 after arriving as a refugee in 2005. Also a Tyson employee, she has two sons in a refugee camp in Uganda. Their interviews at the American visa center there had not yet been scheduled, but now that their cases have been suspended, it's not known when they'll have one.
Lawsuits challenging the travel ban have been filed across the country, and judges have issued injunctions and emergency stays.
A federal judge in Seattle on Friday brought a halt nationwide to the ban, issuing a temporary restraining order in U.S. District Court until further hearings can be held. The Trump administration vowed to quickly appeal the ruling.
Muddying the situation are almost daily statements issued by Trump or federal administrators that aim to clarify the intent of the executive order. Immigration lawyers like Oligmueller continue to seek interpretations of them, then answer their clients' questions as best they can. What happens once the 90-day and 120-day periods expire is hard to say.
"It's just trying to stay on top of it as it develops," Oligmueller said.
WAITING FOR FAMILY
Meanwhile, Omar anxiously awaits to find out when his family might be able to leave Uganda, where they live in a refugee camp.
The danger of civil war drove them from Somalia in 2006. Omar lived in Kenya, Libya and finally Malta before he arrived in Dallas in June 2014. He had friends who lived in South Sioux City, so he came here to get a job at Tyson. In December of that year, he applied to have his wife and children, ages 10-19, join him.
"The youngest one was 6 months old when I left, and now she's 10 years old," Omar said through Osman, who helps interpret for him.
The immigration application process for Omar's family was nearly complete, said Oligmueller, who represents Omar. The family had submitted DNA samples in November, the final step in the process. Oligmueller said it's hard to predict when a final decision would have been made, but they hoped that the Omars would have been reunited in a matter of months.
Omar learned of the travel ban the day it was passed while on a break at Tyson. Since then, thoughts of his family weigh heavily on his mind, making it hard for him to concentrate on work.
"It was too tough for me," he said. "I was doing double shifts at Tyson. Since this happened, I can't do it anymore because I'm thinking about my kids."
If Omar were to go back to Africa to see them, he would not be able to return because he does not yet have a visa. As difficult as it is to be separated from his family, he must stay in the United States, he said, because his job at Tyson allows him to financially support his family and send his children to school.
"If I return to Africa, there is no way I can support my kids. If I stay here, I can support them," he said.
He shows off a recent photo of his two sons in soccer uniforms. There are pictures of his daughters, in groups of two and three. Omar points to photos showing him with his wife. He was much younger then, he points out.
"These were taken nine years ago," he says.
When he left Malta more than two years ago, Omar said embassy officials there told him he was on his way to a new life, and his wife, sons and daughters would be able to join him once he had settled and submitted an application.
That promise of a new life remains unfulfilled as long as his loved ones remain in Uganda, their future uncertain.
Omar said it's hard for him to understand why anyone would want to keep families like his apart. They have fled war and desire a peaceful life in the United States.
"I couldn't believe the president did this," Omar said. "Refugees are human beings, too."