Written By: Pat Nyhan
Radwan Ziadeh is a Syrian scholar whose ten years of U.S. residency and a Temporary Protected Status (TPS) visa failed to prevent being caught in the travel ban, raising a question: Can TPS holders rely on it in these times of shifting immigration policy?
Facing delays and extensive questioning at three different airports the weekend the ban was announced, he was finally allowed to return home to his family in northern Virginia. There is no guarantee it couldn’t happen again, even with the ban suspended.
“I’m very concerned” about an upcoming trip to Canada, says Ziadeh, senior analyst at the Arab Center in Washington, DC, who travels internationally for his work.
Temporary Protected Status
As an outspoken human rights advocate in Syria and a leader of the opposition to the Assad regime, Ziadeh became a target of harassment and threats. In 2007, he was forced into exile and came to the U.S. Five years later, the U.S. granted TPS to Syria due to the civil war.
TPS offers eligible nationals already in the U.S. who can’t safely return to their countries the same privileges as a green card, such as work in the U.S. and international travel. It does not lead to permanent residency (green card) and can be terminated.
A large number of TPS holders come from the Muslim majority countries affected by the travel ban, among them thousands of scholars, doctors and other professionals from Syria whose American communities depend on them.
Ziadeh’s ordeal began in Istanbul, where he was attending a conference. His lawyer had assured him the Trump Administration’s anticipated executive order wouldn’t apply retroactively. But on Friday, January 27, he contacted Ziadeh to return immediately or risk being unable to.
“I was very concerned about my wife and kids,” Ziadeh says. With the ban’s announcement came the news that even green card holders and those with visas like his would be sent back to their countries.
Ziadeh made frantic phone calls to U.S. agencies, only to hear conflicting advice. At the Istanbul airport, he was interrogated, but finally allowed to board. At Frankfurt, German police blocked him, too, until Sunday morning, when a reversal on green card holders was announced. Ziadeh was the last passenger to board the flight.
Arriving at a chaotic Dulles International Airport, he faced two hours of interrogation by the Department of Homeland Security. When DHS headquarters finally cleared him, some officers at Dulles quietly agreed with him that since no terrorist attacks in the U.S. have been perpetrated by refugees in the past five years, the department should spend its limited resources on homegrown terrorists, not travelers like him.
Political asylum
Ziadeh had hoped that by now he and his family would be living under permanent protection as political asylees. Three years ago, he applied for asylum, which offers protection to nationals already in the U.S. who meet the definition of refugees and suffered persecution or a well-founded fear of persecution.
He is still waiting.
As a Mideast scholar with an international reputation and an impeccable record while in the U.S., the 41-year-old Ziadeh would seem eminently qualified. However, the process has dragged on during a vetting process involving interviews with every person he has ever met in his life. A man used to roadblocks by now, he doesn’t give up.
“I am hopeful,” he says.
Dr. Radwan Ziadeh is Senior Analyst, Middle East, at the Arab Center Washington DC. www.ArabCenterDC.org
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Many former Peace Corps Volunteers can recall times when we could have given up in the face of overwhelming challenges. We didn’t, though; we adapted and tried again. We were made better people for the experience. We may feel a lifelong connection with the friends we made, and at times a responsibility to help people like them.
