Ralliers: Don edict destroys families
SALIM ALI’S wife and two of their children remain thousands of miles apart in the Middle East due to the Trump administration’s travel ban.
“My wife’s visa was revoked with the first executive order,” Ali, 38, said Wednesday. “Now, they say we have to wait for the administrative process.”
Ali shared his story in front of over 200 Yemeni immigrants gathered for a rally in Foley Square in lower Manhattan slamming the travel ban.
“Please let our children come to America!” said Abdul Mubarez, president of the Yemini American merchant association.
“We are more American than Donald Trump,” he added. “We value the United States Constitution.”
The crowd held signs that read, “Visas should be for all” and, “President Trump, you celebrate Christmas with your family. I want to celebrate with mine.”
Earlier this month, a divided Supreme Court allowed the full enforcement of Trump’s revised travel ban targeting six mostly Muslim countries. The travel ban allows the administration to block the entry of people from those targeted nations, even if they have a relationship with a U.S. person or institution.
The six nations are Chad, Iran, Libya, Somalia, Syria and Yemen.
Lower courts had ruled that people from those countries with a claim of a “bona fide” relationship with someone in the United States could not be kept out of the country.
The travel ban has been a nightmare for the Ali family.
Ali, who became an American citizen in 2006, has been trying to get his wife and two youngest children, ages 13 and 15, visas to move to the U.S.
His wife obtained one shortly before Trump became President. But it was revoked after Trump signed his first travel ban executive order in late January.
Ali, an American citizen, flew back to the U.S. two months ago, leaving them behind in Cairo, where they had moved from war-torn Yemen. “They are suffering,” he said of his children. “They want to be with their parents.” Ali, who works in a bodega in Canarsie, Brooklyn, talks with them several times a week. He has reached out to Rep. Hakeem Jeffries, who is trying to push their case through. Other immigrants from Yemen shared their stories with the shivering crowd gathered across the street from the Manhattan Supreme Court building. That included Galal Alsalahi, 47, who flew in from North Carolina to join the protest. Alsalahi runs a popular Facebook group where he discusses issues immigrants from the Yemeni community face.
His ex-wife, 9-year-old daughter, and 13-year son are all stuck in Turkey waiting for visas.
But their application has been put on hold since the travel ban was enacted.
“Nothing has since,” he said .
Multiple politicians attended the rally to voice their support for the Yemeni community in New York, and people with family members stuck in the other five banned countries.
“The military says no man left behind,” said Brooklyn City Councilman Robert Cornegy. “I say no families left behind.”
Rep. Yvette Clarke (photo) called the ban “blatant discrimination” and vowed to “resist” until it is removed.
“This is an affront to our values,” she said. “We must stand together and we must fight.” happened