Banned, Rejected, Then Welcomed With Open Arms: Ali's Journey After Trump's Executive Order
After Los Angeles-based artist Marjan K. Vayghan's uncle Ali was stopped at LAX with his valid U.S. immigrant visa and sent back to Iran, the man was back in L.A., to a surreal welcome that included his family, dozens of cameras and the embrace of the mayor of Los Angeles, Eric Garcetti.
“I'm beyond myself,” said a smiling Marjan as she waited for the second time at the airport, holding a big red heart made of cardboard. “L.A. is such a magical place; we had so many people stand for us. This is the city I know and love.”
Just a few minutes before, the mayor of Los Angeles had spoken to the cameras, first in English, then in Spanish — for the local Spanish-language TV stations — and had finally declared that his city was indeed a sanctuary, a phrase that he had avoided until then.
“It's a great day for our values, we are a city of sanctuary and of refuge, a city that defends immigrants,” said Garcetti, after indicating that Los Angeles has more residents of the seven countries banned by the order than any other city in the United States.
Lawyers for the ACLU, the National Lawyers Guild, Public Counsel and the Iranian American Bar Association had been on the ground at LAX since the previous Friday night, working to offer legal help to the hundreds that were detained, held for many hours and stripped of their visas.
Thousands of Angelenos had descended on LAX over the weekend to protest the ban. The same thing happened at JFK airport in New York, Dulles airport in D.C. and many others, including “not-so-liberal” places like Birmingham-Shuttlesworth International Airport in Alabama.
Ali Vayeghan was the first victim of President Donald Trump's ban, issued on the same day he initially was to land in LAX, to be allowed to return to the country. But he wasn't the last one.
It took a special order from a federal judge in Los Angeles to bring Vayeghan back, but shortly after this happy reunion, others started coming back as well, after another federal judge blocked the enforcement of the travel ban nationwide.
By then, according to different accounts by the government, between 60,000 and 100,000 visas to the U.S. had been revoked to travelers from the seven countries targeted by Trump´s executive order.
Exactly one week after the ban was signed, the Department of Homeland Security announced it was “suspending all actions implementing the affected sections of the Executive Order entitled “Protecting the Nation from Foreign Terrorist Entry into the United States.”
For the time being, separated families, students kept from school and others affected by the ban have another chance to make it to the United States with visas that had previously been approved after much vetting.
Ali Vayeghan, himself, spent 12 years waiting for his green card, which he obtained thru the sponsorship of his U.S.-born son, and now that he's safely in his family's embrace in America, he is relishing every moment of it.
“We can't believe everything that has happened,” said his niece Marjan on Sunday, after spending a few blissful days showing his uncle around Venice, Santa Monica and the Pacific Ocean. “We´ve been going to the beach every day. I´m so happy that other families are going to be able to connect too.”
The ordeal didn't change Mr. Vayeghan's thankfulness at being able to reunite with his brother — Marjan's father Hoossein — and his son, whom he had not seen in 12 years. Ali's wife had come to the U.S. a few months before to be with their son in Indiana.
“When I was translating for my uncle and the ACLU, at first they thought I was mistranslating,” Marjan explained. “I let him know he could be completely honest with us. He said, I am, I love America and Americans with all my heart. I have nothing but respect for the people who were doing their jobs.”
Over the weekend, Vayeghan was excitedly taking photos of the Pacific ocean and walking around Venice Beach and the Santa Monica promenade with his niece, who couldn´t stop smiling and posting photos on Facebook.
“I have at least four different religions in my family,” said Marjan during a conversation after her uncle's arrival. “If anyone is discriminated against, we all suffer. Every authoritarian regime starts with cherry picking which groups of individuals' lives have value and which don't. As soon as we buy into their flawed thinking, that we are not all one, we suffer.”
