‘We made it:’ Somali asylum seekers arrive in US before new rules

SAN DIEGO: Ali Said fled his war-torn Somalia two decades ago after his right leg was blown off by a grenade. Last year, the father of seven was shot in his other leg by robbers while living in a Kenyan refugee camp.

As Said rolled his wheelchair up to a desk in a San Diego office hours after arriving in California from Kenya, he felt unbelievably lucky: He and his family are among the last refugees allowed into the US before the Trump administration’s latest travel ban rules kick in.

“Until this moment, in this interview, I still don’t believe that I’m in the United States,” Said told The Associated Press through a translator on Thursday, smiling while his two sons hung at the back of his wheelchair. “So during the flight, we all were saying that we are in a dream and it’s not true yet until we finally landed at LAX and we all said to each other: ‘Yeah, we’re finally here. We made it.’”

The US refugee admissions program will be suspended July 12 when a cap of 50,000 refugee admissions for the current fiscal year — the lowest in a decade — is expected to be reached, according to the US State Department.

Once the cap is hit, only refugees who have a relationship with an immediate family member or ties to a business in the US will be eligible for admission during the 120-day suspension, the State Department guidelines say.

The high court’s ruling allowed for an exemption: Those with a “bona fide” relationship to the US. Under State Department guidelines that was defined as immediate family such as a parent, spouse, child, sibling or business.

Said is aware of the difference a week could have made. He, his wife and children, ages 2 to 15, have no ties to the US beyond the refugee resettlement agency, which the US government says is not sufficient.

“I was afraid our case would be closed,” he said. “It would have been a rough life.”

He said refugees at the Kakuma refugee camp where he lived have talked every day about President Donald Trump’s travel ban since it was first issued in January. It was blocked several times by US courts before the Supreme Court partially reinstated it in June. The Trump administration said the travel ban is necessary to keep Americans safe and to allow the federal government to review the vetting process for refugees and others. Advocates believe the ban will close the doors on many of the most vulnerable people.