Asser has been hiding in Syria for nearly a decade so as not to be arrested by the country’s prestigious intelligence services and disappear in a prison system notorious for the torture and killing of criminals. .
He says he wants a protest against the government of President Bashar al-Assad when the uprising first began in Syria in 2011 and people wanted political and economic rights.
The unrest was not exacerbated by the capture of Syria in a riot, turning into a protracted war between the Russian-backed regime and many opposition groups.
In 2014, when his family, half of whom lived in the United Arab Emirates, applied for immigration to the United States, they were convinced they had two minds about leaving his cause. and his country.
He still had no way to escape to get out of Syria.
As his family arrived in the U.S. and began the paperwork to take him over, Asser waited to ask his contacts for help finding out for the day when he could go back to his family.
“My family left during the Obama occupation when the U.S. accepted refugees, but my documents were cleared later. Around that time, Trump’s ban against citizens of some Muslim countries, including Syria, made it impossible for me to reunite with my family, “Asser said from the Damascus phone. His name has been changed to protect him because of fears about the security device.
On his first day in office, American President Joe Biden delivered on his promise to end Trump’s “non-legislative Muslim ban” by lifting travel restrictions on 13 nations, mostly Muslims. majority or African.
He has given hope to the tens of thousands of people affected by the ban.
‘Unfair, very wrong’
But those as an asser who saw the U.S. as a country of political freedom and aspired to the same in their country are still appalled that they have been classified as a security threat.
Trump had pushed a xenophobic ban as an essential tool to strengthen national security to push it through the American Supreme Court.
“To live in oppression all your life under the regime, and then come a decision from a democratic state that will prevent you from seeing your family,” Asser said. “It was unfair, very unfair.”
Trump’s ban also shattered the faith of members of ethnic and religious minorities, as well as activists, in other countries on the list that claimed persecution by their governments but looked up to the U.S. .
Ali Reza Assadi is an Ahvaz Arab, an ethnic minority in Iran. He said he worked as an engineer at the Iran National Oil Company but would often speak out against what he saw as state-authorized discrimination against his community.
He was feared arrested and fled to Turkey in 2014.
“The US was offered to us as a resettlement country by the UNHCR and we readily accepted it,” he told Al Jazeera of Kayseri, a city in central Anatolia.
“But our last interview date was set in March 2017. That never happened because of Trump’s ban on access to Iranians.”
With every visa application waived or arrested under Trump, thousands of lives were thrown into turmoil [Steve Helber/AP]
Like Asser, Ali was also under the control of values claimed by the U.S. and questioned what caused him and his children to emerge as a security threat.
“In my opinion, this was not an act of humanity at all.” I stood up for the rights of persecuted minorities, just as the United States says it does. How do I and my family pose a threat to U.S. national security? “
Sirvan Morandi works at the Boeing factory in Seattle. He was supposed to be in the U.S. with his entire family but Trump’s ban separated them.
A father, mother, sister and younger brother were all evicted for travel to the U.S. in the pre-Trump era but as new and upsetting rules about refugee flow were debated in federal courts, the flights put them off again.
Then his father died.
“We should have gone to America but they repeatedly canceled our tickets. Then my father died, ”he told Al Jazeera of Seattle. “We have been asked to apply as different family units. My aunt and I were evicted to travel but my mother and sisters are still involved in Turkey. “
The Morandi family comes from the Yersan religion, a syncretic tradition with roots in 14th-century Iran, and the majority of followers in Iraq and Iran are ethnic Kurds.
The Kurds themselves do not have a state but are scattered throughout the region in Iran, Syria, Iraq and Turkey. The Syrian Kurds were allies of the US in the war against the armed group ISIL (ISIS).
Like Ali, Sirvan’s father was also a questionable member of his community and feared being arrested in Iran. His hopes were on the USA but he died stateless in Turkey.
With every visa application waived or arrested under Trump, thousands of lives were thrown into chaos, hopes dashed, and dreams of a better life came to an end. Biden may be trying to put some of it right but Trump’s legacy of the U.S. that he doesn’t like may be surviving.
Only 55 percent of Americans supported Biden’s decision to reverse the ban, according to an ABC-Ipsos poll. That’s a narrow majority and reveals a lot about the country that Trump left behind.
It has revealed a hidden side of the U.S. that may lead many in other countries to see it as a panacea to their plight.
Ahmad, a Lebanese man, has been in the throes of a severe economic crisis with Israeli jets flying over them almost every day, constantly threatening the lives of his children. He said he would like to go to the USA in search of peace and prosperity but no more.
“Trump is gone but many Americans still see Islam and the Islamic people in a certain way that is wrong,” Ahmad said.
“We know Biden is not like Trump but whoever might be the leader, America is racist against us and that is deeply established.”