Shadi wasn’t shocked when the Trump administration announced a travel ban late Wednesday that included her native Iran.
Eight years ago, when Trump announced his first travel ban, Shadi believed that the courts would reverse the policy that many saw as discriminatory toward Muslim-majority countries. That first iteration of Trump’s ban was challenged and struck down, but a later version of it was upheld in 2018 by the U.S. Supreme Court.
In the years that followed, Shadi’s father, who remained in Iran, was never approved for a visa to visit her growing family in Chicago. And after this week’s announcement, the 42-year-old said she feels sad and numb.
“My dad is 78 now,” said Shadi, who asked that her last name not be used because of a pending immigration application. “I don’t know if he (is) ever going to be able to see where I live, my life. None of that. I cannot share it with him.”
Trump’s latest order will go into effect on Monday. The ban prohibits travel into the U.S. from citizens from Myanmar, Chad, the Republic of Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Haiti, Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan and Yemen. Afghanistan is also part of the ban, though there will be exceptions for Afghan Special Immigrant Visas holders, a program for Afghans who worked either directly or in support of the U.S. government.
There will also be further restrictions on people traveling to the U.S. from Burundi, Cuba, Laos, Sierra Leone, Togo, Turkmenistan and Venezuela.
In issuing the ban, Trump cited national security concerns, adding that some countries designated for the ban have inadequate security screenings, while others have a high number of citizens who overstay visas once they arrive in the U.S. Some of the countries were also picked because they have historically not accepted people deported from the United States, according to the White House.
Immigration advocates in Chicago had been anticipating the order for months.
Ahmed Rehab, the executive director of the Chicago office of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, said the newest order has the same spirit as the very first one Trump issued, which had widely been known as a “Muslim ban,” because many of the countries included large populations of Muslims.
“There is no evidence that birthplace determines behavior other than in racist textbooks,” he said. “This is therefore not about national security but politics.”
Nadiah Alyafai, 23, of Yemen, said next week’s ban is not an isolated policy and is only the latest crackdown on immigration by the Trump administration.
“We’ve witnessed just within this second Trump presidency already the cruel raids, the mass deportations, the relentless harassment of all immigrant communities,” she said.
Alyafai is part of the Chicago-based Arab American Action Network, an immigration advocacy group, and most of her father’s family remains in Yemen. It will now be nearly impossible for any of her relatives in Yemen to visit them in the Chicago area.
“All we want is the basic right to bring our families to safety or to visit them, or them to visit me without political roadblocks,” she said. “But because of where they’re from, they’re being treated like threats instead of people, instead of family.”
Shadi, who has dual citizenship in the U.S. and Iran, said the ban will also make it harder for people like herself to travel to the countries listed in the order, saying anyone could be treated as being dangerous.
“The immigration office becomes hostile,” Shadi said. “Even legal citizens from those countries are under terror.”
Fred Tsao, senior policy counsel for the Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights, said the ban will also stop students from the targeted countries from studying in the U.S.
“We’re turning away lots of people who have a lot of potential to do very important research, to basically become our future engineers or future doctors or future professors,” Tsao said. “We’re missing that opportunity to develop that talent and potentially have much of that talent stay in this country. It’s an incredibly self-defeating move on the part of this administration.”
The order will likely face a legal challenge, but it could be upheld by U.S. courts because the newest ban includes carveouts for people from banned countries like those who are permanent U.S. residents, commonly known as green card holders and athletes participating in competitions, said Stephen Yale-Loehr, a retired Cornell Law School professor.
Tsao said advocates aren’t sure if there will be protests at airports like there were the first time Trump issued a travel ban, but he pointed to the community pushback to ICE arrests this week as evidence that the public is unhappy with immigration enforcement.
“We’re using very broad brushes to essentially defame people from specific countries, and that just doesn’t seem fair,” Tsao said.
CAIR is advising people to consult an attorney before traveling, Rehab said. They will also be monitoring and referring people to their travelers assistance project, if anyone faces travel delays or is questioned by immigration officials at airports.