An Iraqi software engineer who works for Facebook in Seattle, Wash., says U.S. President Donald Trump’s seven-nation immigration ban is preventing him from visiting his mother and younger brothers in Canada.
Murtadha Al-Tameemi tells CTV News Channel he was in Vancouver last Tuesday, about to watch his brother perform in a high school play, when his lawyer called and advised him to return to the United States immediately.
Al-Tameemi wasn’t willing to miss his brother’s acting debut, so he waited until morning to return.
Two days later, Trump signed the executive order that blocked visas for 90 days for all people from Iraq, Syria, Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan and Yemen. He can no longer leave the U.S. without the risk that he won’t being allowed back in.
Al-Tameemi arrived in the U.S. as a high school exchange student in 2007. The exchange program was sponsored by a U.S. State Department Program and aimed to help Americans and those in Muslim nations better understand each other. He says the program did exactly that.
He went on to study at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver before landing a coveted job at Facebook.
His father and oldest brother, meanwhile, were both killed by a suicide bomb in Baghdad. His mother and two younger brothers escaped to Canada as refugees in 2015. He now tries to see them as often as he can.
“We were separated for eight years by the time they got here so I have a lot of time to make up,” he added. The travel ban has also forced Al-Tameemi to cancel business travel, including a trip to Africa.
Al-Tameemi pointed out in a Washington Post op-ed that the people excluded by Trump’s order are often fleeing terrorism and violence, not creating it.
Al-Tameemi also wrote that people in “watch-list countries” were already scrutinized closely at the U.S. border before the travel ban. Not only was there extensive paperwork, but extra questioning every time.
Al-Tameemi said his family is very saddened by their separation. “We lived for so many years apart and were all very happy they were able to come here,” he said. “It was probably the biggest event in my life, when they arrived.”
