It’s been a tense week for Noushin, a Santa Rosa woman who is unsure whether her mother will be allowed to return from their native Iran despite being a legal U.S. permanent resident.
Her 68-year-old mother is supposed to return todayfrom Tehran, where she spent months caring for a dying relative. However, Noushin, who did not want her last name disclosed, fears her mother will be barred from getting onto the flight or detained at San Francisco International Airport after President Donald Trump last week executed an order to suspend immigration from seven predominantly Muslim countries, including Iran.
“If she was here last week, she wouldn’t go through this hassle,” said Noushin, a U.S. citizen who helped her mom obtain permanent U.S. residency five years ago. Noushin was waiting for her mom to return to mail her application for U.S. citizenship.
“This is very sad,” she said. “I don’t know how to describe it. I’m very close to my mom.”
Trump’s order bars citizens from Syria, Iraq, Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan and Yemen from entering the U.S. for 90 days. It also permanently blocks Syrian refugees from entering the United States and suspends the entry of all other refugees for 120 days.
The controversial order spurred protests at major airports nationwide over this past weekend, including at San Francisco International Airport. It also sparked widespread concern across Sonoma County, including the county’s Latino community, after reports that immigrants from other countries were being stopped at airports.
Bachar Hammoudeh, who left his native Syria in 2000 and remarried and settled in Northern California, is concerned the changes in immigration policy could squash his dreams of bringing his children to the United States.
Hammoudeh, now a U.S. citizen, petitioned for legal residency for his children. His youngest, Mohamad, 21, received it five years ago, but his eldest son and daughter are still waiting for immigrant visas. While his son fled to Dubai after the war broke out in Syria, Hammoudeh said his daughter and her husband and two young children remain in Damascus.
“One day the bombing was so close to her house it knocked out the windows. Is she at risk? She is. 100 percent,” said Hammoudeh, a fuel truck driver who moved to Martinez a couple years ago after living in Ukiah.
“Everyone is scared. I keep telling them ‘don’t worry,’” Hammoudeh added. But he admits he’s concerned about their future.
“Honestly, I don’t have an answer for them. … We’ll have to wait and see how it’s going to affect everybody,” said Hammoudeh, who’s now considering moving to another country to reunite with his family.
Fears of deportation prompted some students at Santa Rosa Junior College to stop attending classes this week, SRJC president Frank Chong said.
“There is a lot of anxiety and confusion because the executive order was done so hastily,” Chong said.
The college plans to hold a town hall meeting on Wednesday to address students’ concerns. Chong said more than 200 international students attend the college, but he isn’t aware of any that come from the seven countries listed on the executive order.
Haroon Zubair, an international student from Pakistan, welcomed the campus-wide meeting. “People who are not documented and people who have documents are now both concerned,” said Zubair, who’s studying hospitality management at the college under a special visa.
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