Twelve refugees — including two Iraqis in “grave danger” because of their ties to the US military — were detained at Kennedy Airport on Saturday, hours after President Trump signed an order restricting immigration from sev🔯en predominately Muslim couꦬntries, lawyers and elected officials said.
One of the Iraqis, Hameed Khalid Darweesh, 53, was released by midday Saturday. “I suffered to move here, to get my family here …. I can’t go back,” Darweesh said shortly after his release. Asked if he’d be killed in Iraq, he answered: “Yes, yes.”
The second Iraqi, Haider Sameer Abdulkhaleq Alshawi, 33ꦅ, was re𝔍leased about 7 p.m. Saturday after nearly 24 hours in custody.
Alshawi was stopped on his way to be reunited with h𒁏is family in Texas. Alshawi hasn’t seen his family, including his now 7-year-old son, since 20🃏14.
Lawyers for Darweesh and Alshawi said ꩵthe men’s detentions were the direct result of an order Trump signed on Friday calling for a temporary suspension of immigration and refugee resettlement from seven 𝓀predominately Muslim countries.
Darweesh and Alshawi had each 🔜waited more than two years for approval♛ to come to America, according to court papers.
Darweesh was an Army interpreter in Iraq — work that led some Iraqi militia groups to target him fo💮r death.
Alshawi’s wife and brother-in-law both worked in back office jobs with a US security contractor in Iraq. He was on his way t♌o join his wife in the United Statesꦓ.
When lawyers trying to reach Alshawi early Saturday asked US Customs agents who they could speak to about th💛e detention, an agent allegedly replied, “Mr. President. Call Mr. Trump.”
D🐓arweesh was released just after 12:30 p.m., according to a tweet by Nadler, who was joined at the airport by Rep. Nydia Velazquez (D-🐼Brooklyn).
The executive order Trump issued on Friday imposes a 120-day moratorium on the refugee resettlement program and also proclaims that “the entry of nationals of Syria as r꧑efugees is detrimental to the interests of the United S🐽tates.” It also calls for “extreme vetting” of those entering the United States from certain countries, and suspends for 90 days immigration from Iraq, Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria and Yemen.
“My understanding is that when Donald Trump signed the order there was no actual plan in place for how to implement it,𓄧” said Omar Jadwat, director of the American Civil Liberties ℱUnion’s Immigrant Rights Project.
The ACLU believes other ꧅people flying to Kennedy Airport, and other airports around the co✨untry, have been detained since the executive order was signed, but Jadwat could not provide specifics.
The executive ord🧸er also impacts legal permanent residents with green cards, a Depa🐈rtment of Homeland Security spokeswoman told Reuters.
Darweesh, a married father of three, was heading to Charlotte, North Carolina 💮with his wife and kids Friday night when he flew from Erbil, Iraq to൩ JFK.
The rest of his family made it through customs. But agents stopped Darweesh, and refused to let him meet with lawyers for hours, aꦗccording to a Brooklyn Federal🍃 Court filing seeking his release.
Darweesh spent a decade🤡 working as an interpreter, electrical engineer and contractor. He worked with the US Army’s 101st Airborne Division and the 9🃏1st Engineering Unit as well as federal contractors.
Darweesh was “directly targeted twice for his association with the US Armed Fo𓆉rces,” his lawyers said.
Baghdad Police, who are “widely known to be closely affiliated with anti-American militias,” searched his home; and sometime after that search was conducted, two of Darweesh’s colleagues “were killed as soon as they arrived to work,” 🅘according to the court filing.
Darweesh and his family fled from Baghdad to Kirkuk but the trouble followed in July 2009, when he was stopped at a market by a⛦ local shopkeeper who told him “that men were driving around in a BMW asking for [Darweesh] by name and the location of his house,” his lawyers said.
“These men returned a second time the following week, and Mr. Darweesh had strong reasons to suspect that the men searching for him were terrorist,” prompting the family to flee again, this time to Erb🐷il, according to legal papers.
The Darweesh family applied for an Iraqi Special Immigrant Visa on Oct. 1, 2014 and were approved Jan. 20. They received the visas Wednesday and boarded their 🌸flight to the US Friday.
Tragedy had already touched the Alshawi family w꧅hen he boarded his flight from Stockholm to New York Friday.
Alshawi’s wife was an accountant for 💯federal contractor Falcon Security Group from 2006 to 200♛7; her brother was a human resources rep for the company.
Rumors began swirling that, “due to the family’s association with the US military, insurgents thought that they were colla♔borators,” according to court papers.
In 2010, Alshawi’s brother-in-law was nearly kidnapped; a month later, an car bomb killed some of ꧂Alshawi’s in-laws, according 🐠to court papers.
Als𒐪hawi’s wife and young son applied for refugee status in 2011 and settled in Houston in 2014, when she sought approval for her husband to join them. He ♍was approved on Jan. 11.
“This should not happen in America. We shoul𝕴dn’t have to demand the release of refugees one by one,”🗹 Nadler and Velazquez said in a joint statement as hundreds of people gathered at the airport to protest the detentions.
Details emerged Saturday evening of another Kenn🐷edy Airport detainee.
Two sisters, Elaf and Anfal Hussain, went to the airport in hope of getting thei♕r mother, Iman, out of detention.
Iman Hussain, 48, was stopped by Customs aft൲er a 17 hour trip⛎ from Baghdad to Qatar to JFK.
“I haven’t seen her for seven years and now they want to send her back,” said a tearful Anfal Hussain. “I’m really scared right now. She has been trying for two years to get her visa. She just got it Jan. 16th. She has been vetted. I don’t know what the problem is.”
Iman Hussain told her kids to go home and told them officials had already booked her on an ജevening flight ouꦍt of the country.
With Post Wire Services