Signed Friday, Jan. 27, 2017, Donald Trump’s executive order to give priority to christian refugees also banned visas from seven different countries including Iraq, Syria, Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan and Yemen.
Saturday, Jan. 28, 2017 two refugees were detained at the New York John F. Kennedy International Airport as a result of Trump’s executive order that suspends passage of all refugees for 120 days. The two men were reportedly in the air when Trump signed his executive order, and their detainment has been called the “worst-case-scenario” by Betsy Fisher the policy director of the International Refugee Assistance Project.
There is no evidence that refugees – the most thoroughly vetted of all people entering our nation – are a threat to national security. This is an order that is based on bigotry, not reality.” – Lena F Masri, National Litigation Director of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR)
The two Iraqi men that were detained at John F. Kennedy International have been identified as 33 year-old Sameer Abdulkhaleq and 53 year-old Hameed Khalid Darweesh. Abulkhaleq was seeking refuge to be united with his wife and young child that live in Texas. Interestingly, Darweesh has a history of working with the United States as he was a contractor for the U.S. government in Iraq and also served as an interpreter for the U.S. Army while in Iraq. Darweesh has also been trying to secure visas for himself, his wife, and three children for more than two years so that they could come to the United States.
The two men were not allowed access to their lawyers because “Customs and Border Patrol Agents at JFK said that they were not the ones to field such a request.” However when asked by the attorneys who the person to field such a request with is Customs and Border Patrol responded: “Mr.President. Call Mr.Trump.”
The executive director of the National Immigration Law Center, Melanie Hincapie, said that reports of immigrants being detained initially surfaced on Friday evening after a family was detained in San Francisco on Friday afternoon. Therefore when Hincapie recieved a second report about Abdulkhaleq and Darweesh she decided to file complaints as she believes that there is no “guidance” or support from the government on the issue.
