Immigrants from Africa and the Middle East expressed alarm and frustration this week after President Trump signed a new executive order barring citizens of 12 countries from entering the United States. The measure, set to take effect Monday, revived a controversial policy from his first term and immediately sent ripples of anxiety through affected communities.
The travel ban targets citizens from Afghanistan, Myanmar, Chad, the Republic of Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Haiti, Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, and Yemen. While exemptions will apply to those holding valid visas or green cards, many fear the ban will separate families, disrupt immigration proceedings, and foster growing hostility toward Muslims and other immigrant groups.
In Ohio, Haitian asylum seeker Frantzdy Jerome, who works nights at an Amazon warehouse, voiced a common sentiment: “I don’t understand why the president has to target us nonstop.”
From large cities to rural towns, immigrant communities reported fear and confusion. Advocacy groups and immigration attorneys issued urgent guidance, advising individuals to avoid unnecessary travel, secure legal documents, and seek legal counsel.
In Twin Falls, Idaho, Somali grocer Abdulwahabu Mukomwa, who resettled in the U.S. in 2013 after a decade in a Kenyan refugee camp, expressed resignation. “Trump is going to do whatever he wants,” he said.
Customers at his store shared his concern. Yasser Hamed, a Sudanese refugee and business owner, learned about the ban via TikTok. “It’s sad, really sad, when you hear your country is on the list of people they are not welcoming,” he said. Hamed has lived in the U.S. for over a decade and is raising three U.S.-born children.
Another Afghan refugee shopping at the store, who asked to remain anonymous, said she feared being labeled a terrorist. “There are good people and bad people everywhere,” she said.
In Minnesota, which is home to a large Somali diaspora, many saw the policy as a betrayal. “It’s antithetical to what America stands for,” said Hamse Warfa, a former State Department adviser under the Biden administration. “This is a country with a long history of welcoming strangers.”
Somali-born filmmaker Abdi Mohamed, who immigrated as an infant and now lives in Minneapolis, said the ban jeopardizes projects aimed at bridging connections between Somali Americans and their homeland. “To cut us from our homeland is the worst thing to somebody,” he said. Despite being a U.S. citizen, he’s unsure whether traveling to Somalia would be safe under the new policy.
Reactions varied in other immigrant enclaves. In Brooklyn’s Little Haiti, business owner Dolores Murat said she supported the ban, arguing that the Haitian government, not the U.S., is responsible for making Haiti safe. “I think it’s right to do what he’s doing for his country,” she said.
In West Los Angeles’s Tehrangeles district, home to a large Iranian American population, many expressed skepticism that the policy would last. Roozbeh Farahanipour, a longtime activist and business owner who fled Iran more than two decades ago, suspected the move might be a negotiation tactic with Tehran. Still, he worried it could close the door to others. “I came here with nothing,” he said. “I don’t want to be the last American dream.”
Nearby, Mohammad Ghafarian, who owns Shater Abbass Bakery & Market, warned that the ban could harm local businesses dependent on Iranian visitors. “If there is not much Persian, I won’t have good business,” he said.
In California, Afghan tech worker Sahil—who asked to be identified only by his first name—said the policy may indefinitely delay his wife’s arrival from Afghanistan. “I was trying to calm her down and give her hope,” he said. “I don’t know how to tell her it is going to take years to bring her here.”
The announcement is the latest in a series of immigration restrictions under the Trump administration, which has increased deportation flights, curtailed protections for asylum seekers, and authorized courthouse arrests. Civil rights organizations say the cumulative effect of these actions is a climate of fear and alienation for immigrant communities.
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