Mahamed Sheikhdon Iye rented a larger apartment and strapped booster seats in his car for the arrival in Minneapolis this week of his wife and two daughters. But Friday's executive order on immigration put the Somalia native's plans into question: Airline officials told his wife she might not be able to board her flight in Kenya this Saturday.
"I am very, very sad," Iye said. "I have been waiting for five years."
The executive order on immigration and refugee resettlement that President Donald Trump signed Friday cast into uncertainty the lives of a cross-section of local residents and would-be Minnesotans — from a University of Minnesota researcher to residents sponsoring family members overseas to refugees slated to fly here in coming days. On Monday, local attorneys and residents were trying to sort through the implications of the order.
Meanwhile, religious leaders, members of the state's congressional delegation, campus officials and others raised intense concerns about the order. Trump administration officials defended it as necessary to safeguard the nation by giving them time to put in place additional vetting for travelers from countries grappling with terrorism.
Trump's order paused all refugee resettlement for 120 days and the arrivals of Syrian refugees indefinitely. It also suspended for 90 days travel for nationals of seven countries — Iraq, Iran, Yemen, Syria, Libya, Sudan and Somalia — though after some initial confusion administration officials clarified Sunday that the ban does not apply to legal permanent U.S. residents.
Resettlement hub
The Twin Cities is a major national hub for resettlement, where the overwhelming majority of refugees arrive through a family reunification program to join relatives. Dozens of people expected here in coming weeks will have to wait, officials at some of the five local resettlement agencies said.
One trip put on hold was that of a 4-year-old Somali girl, separated from her mother shortly after birth in Uganda and slated to arrive Monday in Minneapolis through Lutheran Social Service.
At the St. Paul-based International Institute of Minnesota, travelers caught in limbo include an Afghani father who won an immigrant visa through his service to the U.S. government and the Somali parents of a 1-year-old who will have to return to the sprawling Dadaab refugee camp in Kenya to await the lifting of the travel ban.