Families, students, scientists: Faces of the immigration ban

Many are still reeling from the effects of an executive order President Trump signed Friday, temporarily banning citizens of seven Muslim-majority countries from entering the U.S. 

People ranging from exchange students in Iran to families with green cards are sharing their stories and worries about whether they will be able to enter the country. From across the nation we look at the lives that are on hold or affected by the immigration ban.

Kurdish family on their way to Nashville forced to turn back

Fuad Sharef Suleman, his wife, Arazoo Ibrahim, and their three children were escorted from Cairo International Airport back to Iraq on Saturday, even though they had valid visas to enter the United States.

The Kurdish family of five was on their way to Nashville when President Trump ordered a travel ban targeting seven Muslim-majority countries.

"I did not know the president can sign such orders," he said. "Because it looks like those autocratic leaders in corrupt countries, not in a democratic modern country like America."

Suleman and his family are stranded with no home and no transportation after having already sold their house, most of their belongings and their vehicles. Suleman quit his job at a pharmaceutical company, Ibrahim resigned from her position as a kindergarten teacher and their children, ages 10-19, left their schools.

Massachusetts Institute of Technology student Niki Mossafer Rahmati 

On Saturday, Rahmati tried to return to Boston after visiting her family in Tehran, Iran, for winter break. Rahmati holds a multiple-entry student visa but was prevented from boarding her connecting flight to Boston because of the immigration ban.

In a Facebook post Saturday, Rahmati said she and 30 other Iranians were prevented from boarding planes to the U.S.

“Among them were old couples trying to go and see their children in the U.S., two old women trying to be with and help their pregnant daughters there for their third trimesters, students who had just gotten their visas and families who had sold their belongings back home so they could build a better life in the U.S.,” Rahmati wrote in a Facebook post. “All these people had gotten visas legally and had gone through background checks.”

Rahmati said Sunday she was told that she should be able to return to the United States, but isn’t sure when.

Woman detained at Dubai airport after spending almost seven years in United States 

Just hours after the executive order was signed Friday, Clemson University graduate Nazanin Zinouri, who lives in South Carolina, said she was detained at Dubai International Airport after arriving from Tehran, where she had been visiting family.

"After waiting in the line to get my documents checked and after 40 minutes of questions and answers, I boarded the plane to Washington, only to have two TSA officers getting in and ask me to disembark the plane!" Zinouri said on Facebook. "Yes after almost 7 years of living (in) the United States, I got deported."

In an email Sunday morning to the Greenville News, Zinouri said, "those trapped in the airports are free now. Bad news is no airline will board any Iranian on any plane heading to the U.S. So there's still no way for me to return."

The data scientist said in a Facebook post that by last Wednesday "we started hearing rumors about new executive orders that will change immigration rules for some countries including Iran.".

"Before I knew it, it was actually happening ... No one warned me when I was leaving, no one cared what will happen to my dog or my job or my life there."

Protests against Trump's immigration plan rolling in more than 30 cities

Syrian man and his American wife stuck in Iraq

Wael Resol, 30, is an interpreter for journalists in the Kurdish area of Irbil in northern Iraq. But he also is a Syrian, and that birthplace has dashed his hopes of living the American dream in Texas with his U.S.-born wife.

Trump's total ban on letting Syrians into the United States because of security concerns, a restriction that went into effect Friday, has left Resol stuck here.

"(Trump's decision) affected me personally. I have had a migration case open for a long time," said Resol, who worked as a supervisor in an international school and a customer service representative at Qatar Airways before his current job.

He said his wife, Katy McGarr of Amarillo, Texas, is a U.S. citizen and teacher who moved to northern Iraq to be with him. But now he's barred from moving with her to the United States, where he had hoped to get a master's degree in linguistics and buy a house in Texas.

"My wife ... wanted to go back home for a long time but we can't. She's stuck here because of me," he added. "Sometimes I feel bad about that. But then I think, 'Just because I am Syrian, I have to blame myself?'"

Wisconsin home all ready, but refugees can't come

The apartment was ready — a nice three-bedroom flat on the north side of Sheboygan, Wis.

A little tight for nine people, maybe, but volunteers from a local church had made bunk beds for the six children, while others went out shopping for furniture, laid in food and prepared “welcome bundles” filled with blankets, toiletries and other things immigrants might need.

Then the word came down:

The nine people for whom the generous welcome was being prepared — all members of a Syrian family who had fled the killing and chaos of their country’s brutal war, had spent four years in Egypt, had gone through the rigorous vetting process and had been cleared for entry to the United States — would not be arriving.

“There was an apartment,” said Lorri Steward, associate pastor of Ebenezer United Church of Christ in Sheboygan. “There were people who had all the beds put up. People were putting silver in the silverware drawers. And the call came that they couldn’t board the plane.”

That was on Saturday. On Monday, those who had helped with the effort spoke about their disappointment and their sympathy for the family.

“It was a sad, sad afternoon,” said Richard Manny, who owns the duplex, and had been willing to allow more people than normal to live there because they were refugees.

Making the news more difficult to take was the fact that the family’s arrival was to reunite them with the children’s uncle, who was able to immigrate to Sheboygan a few months ago, before the ban.

The uncle, a 21-year-old man whose first name is Mohammad, got separated from relatives five years ago because of the war, said Jenny Goodman, another volunteer.

“Everyone involved is very very hurt on behalf of Mohammad,” she said. “He got separated from his family at such a young age, and that’s a reality that’s hard to even picture and imagine what that would be like. We were all so excited for them to finally be together again.”

The family — a couple; their children, ranging in age from about eight to the late teens; and a grandmother — remains in Egypt, Steward said.

“They gave up their apartment,” she said. They gave their furniture away. They got rid of everything because they were supposed to come, and now they’re stuck there. And they’re afraid to go anywhere, because if they leave Egypt, as refugees, they might get sent back to Syria.”

“There are real people’s lives involved in all of this,” Steward said.

N.J. immigrants with green cards scared to leave U.S.

Asaad Aref, who was born in Syria and now lives in Clifton, N.J., said his niece, a former Lyndhurst resident, last week left Saudi Arabia, where she and her husband have been living because of work. Aref said his niece is a Syrian citizen, with a permanent U.S residency and is in the process of becoming a U.S. citizen.

“Now with this man [Trump], that means she can’t come back to see the family,’’ he said. “She has a green card. We are worried about that.”

A Homeland Security official told CNN Sunday that green card holders would not be affected, but much confusion still exists after reports that green card holders were denied entry to U.S.-bound flights.

Aref, a registered Republican, said he had voted for Hillary Clinton. He said the ban can have serious consequences for the U.S.

“He’s hurting this country rather than helping it,’’ Aref said. “The U.S. has troops in Syria and Iraq. How are you going to explain it if they turn around and say that they don’t want U.S. citizens there, like Iran did today? He is a bully and Congress has to stop these ridiculous executive orders.”

Contributing: Ariana Maia Sawyer, The Tennessean;  Grace Z. Li, USA TODAY College correspondent from Harvard University; Hannan Adely and Monsy Alvarado, The (Bergen County, N.J.) Record; Igor Kossov, Special for USA TODAY; Rick Romell, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel; Mary Bowerman, USA TODAY.