CLEVELAND, Ohio — Two refugee families from Iraq and Syria are due to arrive in Cleveland on Thursday in the wake of a court order that overturned President Donald Trump’s ban on immigration from seven Middle Eastern and North African countries.
Another refugee family from Burundi in East Africa is to fly here February 13.
Additionally, Morteza Shakeri of Stow said his wife, Mansoureh Shasti, and their year-old daughter Kiana, will be flying into the Akron-Canton Airport tonight, following a week of uncertainty about their return following a visit to Iran.
Danielle Drake, community relations manager for the US Together resettlement agency here, said a Syrian family that was scheduled to come to Cleveland on January 31 from a refugee camp in Turkey, had to postpone plans when Trump issued the immigration ban on January 27.
However, with the recent court order, the family of two parents and four children, ages 6 through 15, will be arriving at Cleveland Hopkins International Airport Thursday night.
Another family – a mother and three children from Iraq — also will arrive here that night.
Drake said housing previously rented for the Syrian family is still available, and she is confident that homes for the other families also will be secured.
Morteza Shakeri said his wife and daughter were in Iran to visit family, then flew to Canada to get a visa she needed to re-enter the U.S. She discovered the status of that visa was uncertain, after Trump signed his executive order, and spent the past week in Canada in visa limbo.
The couple have been in the U.S. for six years on student visas. She is studying physics at Kent State University; he has a Masters degree from the University of Akron and works as a civil engineer in Canton.
“I’m so excited. To be honest, I want to cry,” Morteza Shakeri said in a phone interview with The Plain Dealer on Monday.
He said his wife was told the visa was ready for her this morning, and was a little nervous as she passed through the security gate at the airport. But now, “we are just happy and looking forward to seeing each other again,” he added.
Shakeri believes the court order overturning the ban “absolutely” had everything to do with the visa being expedited.
The Trump administration has said it will seek an emergency order to overturn the decision and restore the original executive action.
Consequently, Drake said refugee resettlement efforts are “kind-of in a mode of getting whoever we can get here now, who has gone through all the vetting, and is packed ready to go. We’re going to try to get them here while we still have a legal foot to stand on.
“We’re very excited. I’m trying to stay cautiously optimistic,” she added. “Unfortunately, I think our battle is not over.”
Other area families previously affected by the ban are still awaiting reunions here.
These include Syrian immigrant Abdul Terkawi, hoping to reunite with his wife and four children; Felix Tunnganwee, who is trying to bring his two children from Africa to Cleveland; and Malwila Jossy Kasole, who is seeking a reunion with his 14-year-old son, also from Africa.
Our editors found this article on this site using Google and regenerated it for our readers.
