Supreme Court’s nod to travel ban heightens refugee worries
AMMAN, Jordan — Syrian refugee Mahmoud Mansour fears he and his family will get stuck in Jordan instead of resettling in the United States, and this week's Supreme Court ruling on the Trump administration travel ban added to his dread.
The ruling upholding the entry ban for residents from seven countries, including Syria, doesn't directly kill the Mansours' chances of joining family members in the U.S.
However, previous Trump administration restrictions on entry did affect Syrian refugees, leading to a growing backlog of cases, at a time when the U.S. lowered the cap on refugee admissions.
In such a climate, Mansour, an artisan who embroiders traditional dresses, said his hopes are dwindling. Trump has "devastated us since he took office" in January 2017, he said.
"I don't think any country will take us," said the 44-year-old who fled to Jordan with his family in 2012, running from Syria's brutal civil war.
More than 6 million Syrians have fled their homeland, most settling in overburdened regional host countries such as Jordan. Many have depleted savings, survive on menial jobs if they can get them and dream of either going back to Syria or moving on to a Western country to guarantee a better future for their children.
"We are trapped like these birds," Mansour said, pointing to two canaries in cages hanging from the wall of a sparsely furnished rental apartment in the Jordanian capital of Amman.
Mansour, his wife and four daughters had been undergoing security vetting at one point under a resettlement program run by the U.N. refugee agency.
However, they along with other refugees got stuck in the procedural pipeline as the Trump administration issued and revised entry restrictions since last year.
Two older brothers, Ahmed and Suleiman, managed to reach the U.S. as part of the U.N. refugee agency's resettlement program, joining an uncle, a U.S. citizen, in Connecticut. Suleiman and his family reached the U.S. from Amman a day before Trump's inauguration.