Fear spreads among Muslim Americans as Trump travel ban looms

Source: msn/USA Today

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Nadiah Alyafai is bracing for four years of missed memories, birthdays, and holidays. Since she was young, the now 22-year-old has traveled to her father’s native country of Yemen every few years to see family. Her grandparents, aunts and uncles who live there frequently travel to the United States, too, and some have legal residency here, Alyafai said.

But, as President Donald Trump considers sweeping travel restrictions for citizens of more than a dozen countries, Alyafai fears that her family soon won’t be able to come and visit and that her father, who became a legal permanent resident of the U.S. more than two decades ago, won’t be able to return home to Chicago if he travels outside the country. “If my grandparents passed away in Yemen and we weren't able to see them one last time . . . there's no words,” Alyafai said. “It's heartbreaking.”

A draft version of the Trump administration proposal to prohibit and limit citizens of more than 40 countries from entering the United States leaked in early March. The White House said Thursday that it had not yet made a decision on the policy. More than a half dozen advocates told USA TODAY that anticipation of the new restrictions, along with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s recent detainment of multiple college students from majority-Muslim countries, has led to a climate of rampant anxiety among the American Muslim community.

The fear isn’t only spreading among those with family living abroad. “U.S. citizens are afraid to travel overseas, believing there’s a possibility they will be prevented by the Trump administration to return, especially if they’re traveling to Muslim countries,” said Robert McCaw, the government affairs director for the Council on American-Islamic Relations, America’s largest Muslim civil rights organization.

Read more: https://www.msn.com/en-us/politics/government/fear-anxiety-spread-among-muslim-americans-as-trump-travel-ban-looms/ar-AA1BTgAI