Iowa students brace for, fear immigration ban

IOWA CITY — More than four years ago, University of Iowa junior Monzer Shakally was living a much different life as a Syrian teenager, protesting government forces in his hometown of Damascus with a daily and intimate awareness of his mortality.

His involvement was peaceful — waving flags and burning tires. But it eventually led to his arrest, during which officers beat and interrogated him, he said, until his father showed up and convinced them to let him go.

But Shakally was 'blacklisted' and ordered to serve as an informant. And one of his older brothers was arrested a short time later and tortured in something like a concentration camp, he said. Having had enough — the boys' parents sent their sons to Egypt.

Shakally applied for a student visa to the United States, and arrived in Iowa in December 2012 to live with his much older brother in Des Moines. Now a UI biology and pre-dentistry major, Shakally has been waiting more than three years for word on his political asylum application.

He hoped it was just a matter of time. He'd always envisioned his future involving U.S. citizenship.

'I'm not really sure anymore,' Shakally told The Gazette on Monday. 'I'm kind of trying to think things through. I'm not really sure yet how realistic that option is anymore.'

Even his eldest brother, who today is living in Minneapolis with a green card, is lining up 'second options' once he finishes a fellowship program. That, Shakally said, could include moving to another country — like Canada.

'People are feeling like their rights can be taken away with a stroke of a pen,' Shakally said. 'They are just freaked out with what's going on now, and everyone is thinking about the worst-case scenario.'

People from Syria, he said, 'They've seen how quickly things can escalate.'

'It's just sad.'

'We are concerned'

Shakally has reached out to Rep. Dave Loebsack, whose staffers said they'll 'see what they could do.' He met with a university attorney in the basement of the Iowa Memorial Union on Monday, and the university over the weekend sent out a broader message to international students with instructions.

'President Trump signed an executive order Friday that will impact visa processing abroad for international students and scholars, and will also impact some faculty, staff and students traveling abroad,' reads the message from Downing Thomas, associate provost and dean of International Programs.

In sum, the message urges UI community members who are traveling abroad and need to apply for a visa to return to allow plenty of time, as waits are expected to spike. For citizens of seven countries banned from entering the U.S. for at least 90 days, the UI guidance urged them to stay in the United States.

On the UI International Programs website, an informational page notes the situation is fluid and unclear, in some instances.

'There are also drafts of other orders that have not been signed as of this time, that have been leaked to the press, and which could impact our students and scholars if they are eventually signed,' according to the website.

In Thomas' message, he makes clear the university's stance on international students.

'The University of Iowa has long recognized that a diverse and inclusive community is the foundation of a strong education,' he wrote. 'Each of you, regardless of your background or country of origin, is welcome in our community. You bring perspectives and experiences that, taken together, enrich the educational experience and prepare UI students to thrive in their lives and careers.'

Iowa State University sent a similar message to the campus over the weekend, advising international students from the seven banned countries — Iran, Iraq, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria, and Yemen — to stay in the United States.

And, on Monday, ISU President Steven Leath issued a broader statement.

'While we recognize the need for federal actions to protect our national security, we are concerned this executive order will unnecessarily interfere with members of our campus community,' he wrote. 'As a result, we will continue to work with leading national higher education organizations to advocate for immigration policies that protect national security, but also promote and safeguard the international relationships and people who are core to our success as an institution of higher education and as a nation.'

University of Northern Iowa sent a message Monday afternoon, vowing to work with affected students and stand 'firmly behind UNI's vision statement, which asserts that we will be 'a diverse and inclusive campus community.' '

'We are a caring and safe community, characterized by civility and respect, which stands in solidarity against any actions that exclude, discriminate against, or silence members of our community,' according to the letter, which came from UNI's Interim President Jim Wohlpart and Incoming President Mark Nook.

Kirkwood Community College also sent a message Monday afternoon with similar sentiments.

At Coe College, spokesman Rod Pritchard said preliminary checks indicate no students are affected by the ban at this time.

The same holds true at Cornell College in Mount Vernon, although that school's President Jonathan Brand sent a message to the campus Monday morning vowing to 'take steps that provide, within the limits of the law, protection and relief to our international and immigrant students, so that they, too, can engage freely in liberal learning and pursue their lives' goals.'

'Such a position fits squarely within our history and those core values that we collectively embrace, specifically our commitment to civic-social responsibility and the inherent dignity and worth of each individual in a diverse community,' Brand wrote.

The University of Iowa this fall enrolled about 4,300 international students, including nearly 90 from the seven affected countries. ISU enrolled 4,131 international students this fall, including 115 from the banned countries. And UNI welcomed 548 international students in the fall.

'Hurting our country'

Hamad Algamaiah is a UI master's degree student and resident in the College of Dentistry, here from Saudi Arabia on a student visa with aspirations to pursue a doctorate at Iowa. He arrived on campus in July 2015 after spending one year in New York, and his wife — also from Saudi Arabia — is applying for the UI master's program in informatics.

They have two small children — a 23-month-old son and 9-month-old daughter — and they hoped to return to Saudi Arabia after finishing their degrees, pay off Algamaiah's scholarship, and then move back to the United States.

'Now this just happened,' he said.

Saudi Arabia is not on the banned list, but Algamaiah is worried it could be at any moment.

'I like to plan everything ahead,' he said, noting he's stuck in a 'wait and see' mode. 'I don't have a choice now.'

Most of Algamaiah's family remains in Saudi Arabia, including his parents and a brother who is getting married this summer. Algamaiah was planning to go back.

'I don't think I'll be going,' he said. 'The smart choice is not to go.'

Maisarah Mohd, a third-year UI student from Malaysia, said she, too, was headed home this summer. She already bought the ticket. But, Mohd said, she's now changing her plans and hoping for a refund — as she's Muslim and worries the Trump Administration might expand the ban.

When Mahmoud Siddig moved to Iowa City nearly two decades ago, the Sudanese native was 10. He attended UI, graduated in 2011, and took jobs at Ashford University in Clinton Iowa and then in the financial aid office with Kirkwood Community College in Cedar Rapids.

He's currently visiting his girlfriend in Bahrain, an island nation in the Persian Gulf near Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Iraq, and Iran. Siddig, now 28, was planning to be back in Iowa City in a couple months — when his father, a green-card holder from Sudan, was planning to return to the United States from a trip back to Africa.

'I am very much worried that he won't be able to come back,' Siddig said, noting the Trump Administration has reversed its ban on green-card holders from the seven nations but stood by orders to require additional interviews and screening.

'I think this is baseless and nonsense,' he said. 'I think President Trump and the administration has overreacted.'

Siddig said he supports getting a handle on actual terror threats to the nation.

'But I think we could take a better approach,' he said. 'Banning random countries that don't even have links to terrorist attacks here, it's baseless and pretty much racist.'

As public relations officer for the UI Muslim Students Association, Abdual Rahman Ismail said he's heard widespread concern from UI international students — including several from Syria, who are in 'bad situations now.'

One UI student from Sudan emailed to let him know her grandmother had been flying in from the African nation over the weekend and was detained in a Dallas airport. Ismail said he hasn't heard an update, but the presumption was the grandmother was being sent back to Sudan.

'A lot of international students want to go home over the summer, but they might not be able to because they can't guarantee they'll be able to come back,' Ismail said. 'I know a lot of Iranian students who are now kind of trapped here.'

Ismail's parents originally are from Yemen, and his father is here on a work visa. That raises some concern for the family, even though they've been here for years and have Canadian citizenship.

He called the current situation 'horrible.'

'This country is built off immigrants ... 50 percent of the Ph.D. students — most of them are immigrants,' he said. 'These immigrants are the smartest people, who are leaving their countries for a better education because they don't have this well-developed educational system.

'We are not only hurting them, but we're also hurting our country.'

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