Syrian asylum recipient reunited with his wife, child

MADISON - A Syrian man and asylum recipient was reunited with his family this week after prevailing in a legal case that took on President Donald Trump’s immigration order.

The plaintiff, a Sunni Muslim man known as John Doe, saw his wife and young daughter for the first time Wednesday after more than three years of separation. The family is now safe in Wisconsin, where they intend to live, his attorneys said.

The Syrian man didn’t win a definitive ruling in his case, but instead got the immigration order temporarily blocked by a judge here before withdrawing the case Friday. That gave the plaintiff enough time to win asylum for his wife and 3year-old child through the same process that he had completed earlier.

“In the face of two executive orders that sought to prevent innocent refugees and asylum seekers from seeking safety in the United States, the reunion of John Doe’s family is a victory, not just for our client and his wife and young daughter, but for the rule of law as well,” said Vincent Levy, a partner at the Syrian’s lead law firm of Holwell Shuster & Goldberg LLP.

John Doe was not identified in court documents because of the danger to his family while they were still in Syria. The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel is requesting to speak with and identify the family and get more details on their story.

In the case, U.S. District Judge William Conley in Madison put a limited freeze on Trump’s revised immigration order, which restricts immigration from six mostly Muslim nations including Syria. Conley’s order applied only to the Syrian family and lasted only until the resolution of the case.

“Given the daily threat to the lives of plaintiff’s wife and child remaining in Aleppo, Syria, the court further finds a significant risk of irreparable harm,” Conley wrote in a brief order in March.

The Syrian man arrived in the United States in 2014 and was granted asylum in 2016 because he had been persecuted. Underscoring the danger to the man’s family, the man’s lawsuit notes his son died two years ago when the toddler fell three floors while trying to escape his home when it was hit with rocket fire.

The president and his administration have argued that the immigration order could make the United States safer from Islamic terrorists. Critics say the order unfairly targets a particular religion.