Families in Africa fear effects of Trump’s expanded US travel ban
AN ERITREAN father yearning to be reunited with his four children after 15 years apart. An American woman adopting a Nigerian toddler.
These are just some of the families waiting to see how they will be affected by President Donald Trump’s expansion of the US travel ban.
Awet fled Eritrea in 2005. He is now a US citizen. Awet described how he hugged his four young children, whispering only to his weeping mother that he was leaving forever. For three days, he said, he hid under rocks by day and dodged hyenas and soldiers at night as he tried to cross the border.
Awet spent four years as a refugee in Ethiopia and Kenya before being resettled to the US in 2009. When a 2018 peace deal between Ethiopia and Eritrea made it possible for the children to leave Eritrea safely, he finally dared hope he would see them again.
Awet had been trying to bring his children over on family visas for the past year. But on Friday, Trump issued an expanded version of his travel ban that suspended immigrant visas – a category that includes family visas – for Eritreans and Nigerians.
The other countries with new restrictions are Kyrgyzstan, Myanmar, Tanzania and Sudan.
US Homeland Security acting Secretary
Chad Wolf said the restrictions were needed because the six countries had failed to meet US security and information-sharing standards.
But US House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi called the ban “discrimination disguised as policy”.
“Trump’s new law, for us, it’s very hurtful,” said Awet, speaking by phone from his home in the US.
“At least let the children in, those who want to come to be with their mother or father.” He said he was still praying he would see his children – now aged 14 to 18 – again one day. Their mother is in the Middle East. In Nigeria, 37-year-old Californian Lynsey Elston is waiting to find out if or when her newly adopted daughter will be able to meet the rest of the family back in the US.
Eliana Ezinne, 3, arrived at her home in Nigeria on Christmas Eve 2019 after years of paperwork, interviews and uncertainty.
“This is my child,” she said as she cuddled the sleepy girl. “I can’t be separated from my child.”
Hasan Shafiqullah, of the Immigration Law Unit at The Legal Aid Society in New York, said Elston could apply for Eliana’s citizenship only from inside the US, and Eliana could enter only on an immigrant visa.