It’s wrong to bar my wife and kids
You could pass me on the street, or come into my store, and never know that today, the Supreme Court issued a decision that has devastated the course of my life. I'm 29 years old, a U.S. citizen, and I manage a store in Brooklyn — and today, the highest court in the land voted to uphold Trump's travel ban and bar my wife and two daughters indefinitely from entering this country.
Since the war in Yemen, my home country, began in 2015, I have been trying to bring my wife and children to safety in America. My wife Amira and my son Ezzal were given visa interview dates last October in Djibouti, and Ezzal received his visa right away. Amira was told she'd have to wait two weeks, but two months later, when the ban took effect, she was still waiting. Finally, after sending our 9-year-old son alone to New York to live with me, her visa was denied in March.
Now, Amira lives in Egypt with our two daughters: Rahef, who is only 2 years old, and Noor, who is 3. Amira is 28 years old, and she is a great wife and mother. Her dream is to become a nurse. But she's banned indefinitely from joining Ezzal and me in Brooklyn –– all because of a ban that is supposed to “protect” my own country, and U.S. citizens like me, from foreigners. But I can't understand: How exactly are my young daughters and my wife a threat?
This has upended my life. To visit my family means the world to me, and I travel back and forth now to Egypt to see them, but it's a huge cost financially and it's clear how hard the separation is on Amira and my small children. My daughters are growing up without their older brother, without their father. And Ezzal and I are thousands of miles away, with no choice but to hope that our country will recognize my family's humanity and allow them to join us.
I am an optimistic person, but this ban has made my life miserable, lost, broken. How could this have happened, after I provided everything that was required for Amina to receive her visa? I am a citizen of the greatest nation in the world, where justice is due to everyone.
My only hope is for my family to come here to the U.S., and I have to believe that this fight isn't over. I know that my fellow Americans, those who are willing to defend religious freedom and fight for a just and inclusive society will stand with my family against this policy. So now I ask you: Continue to fight this anti-Muslim travel ban until our voices are heard and this hideous stain on our country is overturned. This is the United States of America, the land of the free, and the home of the brave; support Ezzal and I, and help us unite our family again.
Mothena lives in Brooklyn.