An Eritrean father yearning to be reunited with his four children after 15 years apart. An American woman adopting a Nigerian toddler. A Nigerian man desperate to be with his American wife and children.
These are some of the families waiting to
see how they will be affected by President Donald Trump’s expansion of the U.S. travel ban.
Awet, who asked that Reuters use a nickname to avoid reprisals against his family, fled Eritrea in 2005. He is now a U.S. citizen.
Awet described how he hugged his four young children hard, whispering only to his weeping mother that he was leaving forever. For three days, he said, he hid under rocks by day and dodged hyenas and soldiers at night as he tried to cross the border.
Awet spent four years as a refugee in Ethiopia and Kenya before being resettled to the United States in 2009. When a 2018 peace deal between Ethiopia and Eritrea made it possible for the children to leave Eritrea safely, he finally dared hope he would see them again. Awet had been trying to bring his children over on family visas for the past year.
But on Friday, Trump, a Republican, issued an expanded version of his travel ban that suspended immigrant visas - a category that includes family visas - for Eritreans and Nigerians. The other countries with new restrictions are Kyrgyzstan, Myanmar, Tanzania and Sudan.
U.S. Homeland Security acting Secretary Chad Wolf said the restrictions were needed because the six countries had failed to meet U.S. security and information-sharing standards. But U.S. House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi, a Democrat, called the ban “discrimination disguised as policy.”
“Trump’s new law, for us, it’s very hurtful,” said Awet, speaking by phone from his home in the United States. “At least let the children in ... those who want to come to be with their mother or father.”
Awet said he is still praying that he will see his children - now aged 14-18 - again one day. Their mother is in the Middle East.
“I’m leaving it to God,” he told Reuters.
“God and a lawyer,” his attorney Kari Scofield chimed in.
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