On January 17, 2017, President of the United States of America signed an Executive Order titled, 'Protecting the Nation from Foreign Terrorist Entry into the United States'. The said order numbered 13769 is also known as the 'Muslim Ban'.
Thousands of couples, children, elderly and others who have suffered through the ban are still unable to meet their loved ones. There are cases where families have been torn apart. Children may not be with their parents or vice versa, similarly, couples have been compelled to live miles away.
One such couple is Ramez Alghazzouli and his wife Asmaa Khadem Alarbaiin; both hail from Syria and have been forced to live apart.
In conversation with HuffPost, Alghazzouli said that his wife is an English student in Istanbul, Turkey and can not travel to the United States due to the said ban.
HuffPost further quoted that the couple has their third anniversary next month but they won't be together on the occasion.
Since 2017, thousands of visa applications have been rejected citing the said ban. According to the HuffPost in 2018 alone, 37,000 visa applications were rejected. As per the State Department's claim, only 5 percent of waivers have been issued with respect to the ban.
One such waiver was a Yemeni mother who was allowed to visit his two-year-old son admitted in Oakland hospital back in December 2018.
To Alghazzouli's utmost dismay, the Supreme Court upheld the Muslim Ban in a 5-4 ruling last year. Representatives of the US Congress, activists, advocacy groups, etc were appalled by the top court's decision.
Donald Trump took to Twitter expressing his satisfaction over the court's decision while others tweeted against it.
https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1011620271327989760?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1011620271327989760&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.aljazeera.com%2Fnews%2F2018%2F06%2Fsupreme-court-upholds-trump-travel-ban-180626142504629.html
https://twitter.com/SereneJones/status/1011628234306457600?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1011628234306457600&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.aljazeera.com%2Fnews%2F2018%2F06%2Fsupreme-court-upholds-trump-travel-ban-180626142504629.html
“This is what makes me mad, makes me angry and disappointed. It’s just because of my wife’s religion and nationality,” “If my wife was Polish or Norwegian, she could have been here with me", Alghazzouli said to the HuffPost.
The ban in question bars Muslims from seven countries including Syria, Iran, Yemen, Libya, Somalia, Venezuela, and N Korea.
Alghazzouli and his wife who married back in 2016 were all set to begin their lives in the United States when Trump`s ban came in a year later.
According to the HuffPost, Ghazzouli was determined to receive a waiver for his wife due to her well-educated background but couldn't get one despite a legal clause added in the Supreme Court's judgment pertaining to hardships.
“I just feel like I’ve been treated like a second-class citizen,” Alghazzouli said to the HuffPost. “This is my basic right to have my spouse with me, to start a new life".
Thousands of couples, children, elderly and others who have suffered through the ban are still unable to meet their loved ones. There are cases where families have been torn apart. Children may not be with their parents or vice versa, similarly, couples have been compelled to live miles away.
Steve Helber/The Associated Press
One such couple is Ramez Alghazzouli and his wife Asmaa Khadem Alarbaiin; both hail from Syria and have been forced to live apart.
In conversation with HuffPost, Alghazzouli said that his wife is an English student in Istanbul, Turkey and can not travel to the United States due to the said ban.
HuffPost further quoted that the couple has their third anniversary next month but they won't be together on the occasion.
Since 2017, thousands of visa applications have been rejected citing the said ban. According to the HuffPost in 2018 alone, 37,000 visa applications were rejected. As per the State Department's claim, only 5 percent of waivers have been issued with respect to the ban.
One such waiver was a Yemeni mother who was allowed to visit his two-year-old son admitted in Oakland hospital back in December 2018.
To Alghazzouli's utmost dismay, the Supreme Court upheld the Muslim Ban in a 5-4 ruling last year. Representatives of the US Congress, activists, advocacy groups, etc were appalled by the top court's decision.
Donald Trump took to Twitter expressing his satisfaction over the court's decision while others tweeted against it.
https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1011620271327989760?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1011620271327989760&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.aljazeera.com%2Fnews%2F2018%2F06%2Fsupreme-court-upholds-trump-travel-ban-180626142504629.html
https://twitter.com/SereneJones/status/1011628234306457600?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1011628234306457600&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.aljazeera.com%2Fnews%2F2018%2F06%2Fsupreme-court-upholds-trump-travel-ban-180626142504629.html
“This is what makes me mad, makes me angry and disappointed. It’s just because of my wife’s religion and nationality,” “If my wife was Polish or Norwegian, she could have been here with me", Alghazzouli said to the HuffPost.
The ban in question bars Muslims from seven countries including Syria, Iran, Yemen, Libya, Somalia, Venezuela, and N Korea.
Alghazzouli and his wife who married back in 2016 were all set to begin their lives in the United States when Trump`s ban came in a year later.
According to the HuffPost, Ghazzouli was determined to receive a waiver for his wife due to her well-educated background but couldn't get one despite a legal clause added in the Supreme Court's judgment pertaining to hardships.
“I just feel like I’ve been treated like a second-class citizen,” Alghazzouli said to the HuffPost. “This is my basic right to have my spouse with me, to start a new life".