Farah Al-khersan is a lawyer and solo practitioner based in Ann Arbor, Mich., whose practice focuses on family-based immigration and removal defence.
When I decided to become an immigration lawyer, my main goal was to help immigrants in their most difficult hours. Not once, however, did I consider that my husband would be one of the individuals I needed to advocate for.
On the night of Jan. 27, 2017, just one week into Donald Trump’s first term as President, my husband and I went to have dinner at his parents’ house in Sarnia, Ont., which was just a short, routine drive over the Canada-United States border from our home in Michigan. It just so happened to be the day that Mr. Trump’s first blanket travel ban, barring entry into the U.S. by foreign nationals from seven predominantly Muslim countries, went into effect. When I think about it now, I still can’t fathom the events that would take place later that day. Sometime during the evening, I started receiving reports of immigrants being detained at ports of entry all throughout the U.S. We had planned to spend the night in Sarnia, but feeling unsettled, we decided to head home.
My husband, born in Iraq, was a Canadian citizen and lawful permanent resident of the U.S. at the time. While Iraq was one of the countries named in the ban, I had assumed that an immigrant with dual citizenship in Canada would not be at risk. Unfortunately, U.S. Customs and Border Protection agents did not agree. As we tried to enter the country via the Blue Water Bridge border crossing that evening, they detained him.
As an immigration lawyer and naturalized U.S. citizen, I was able to advocate for my husband’s release. Our story, in its irony, piqued the attention of a few media outlets, as it highlighted the far-reaching and unexpected implications of the first Trump administration’s hardline stance on immigration. The administration later clarified that lawful permanent residents were not subject to the travel ban.
More than eight years later, I still have not forgotten the shock of the first Trump administration’s immigration policies. Yet Mr. Trump’s actions on immigration in the weeks since his second inauguration have proven to be even more devastating. The recent detention of Mahmoud Khalil, a Columbia University graduate student and activist, highlights Mr. Trump’s unrelenting efforts to not only fulfill his promise of mass deportations, but also to curb free speech. Mr. Khalil is a lawful permanent resident. He is married to a U.S. citizen who is currently eight months pregnant. But because he protested for Palestinian rights at Columbia last summer, Secretary of State Marco Rubio has deemed his presence to have “potentially serious foreign-policy consequences,” grounds for which he can be deported pursuant to the Immigration and Nationality Act.
While Mr. Khalil’s fate is yet to be determined, his detention is only one example of the many destructive immigration actions Mr. Trump has taken so far, including: the termination of Temporary Protected Status for more than 600,000 Venezuelans currently in the U.S.; the expansion of expedited removal, which allows for the deportation of certain immigrants without a court hearing; reopening detention centres for migrant families; and asserting that migration via the U.S.-Mexico border constitutes an invasion.
The administration’s nationalist stance has spilled over into other facets of society, including the ongoing trade wars. Mr. Trump has specifically tied his tariffs on imports from Canada and Mexico to his supposed efforts to combat illegal immigration and drug trafficking. The success of these tariffs is questionable at best, but the administration has managed to accomplish at least one implicit goal – sewing more fear and anxiety into the fabric of the American immigration system.
When Mr. Trump was re-elected, I, along with many immigration lawyers, immediately understood the implications. I experienced many emotions leading up to the inauguration, the primary one being fear for my clients and for other immigrants throughout the country. Every day of the past two months has felt like an uphill battle, but the number of lawyers, advocates and individuals who have chosen to speak out against injustice inspires me to keep serving my clients the best I can.
My husband and I recently spoke with his parents, who still reside in Sarnia and are worried about their ability to visit us and our children in the coming years. While I cannot downplay the further anticipated immigration changes, I do know that many U.S. residents continue to believe that immigrants are vital to America’s economy, society and future. As both an immigrant and an immigration lawyer, I still believe the U.S. has the potential to move past this dark moment in its history. No amount of anti-diversity rhetoric from the current administration will convince me otherwise.
