A witness at the House’s Tuesday hearing on new legislation that would overturn Donald Trump’s Muslim ban included a New Yorker who has never even been able to hold his infant daughter in his arms due to the discriminatory policy. Republicans, meanwhile, invited a member of an anti-immigrant hate group as their policy “expert.”
Ismail Alghazali, a U.S. citizen, testified that his wife, Hend, and their two children, 1-year-old Khaled and 5-month-old Rahf, have been stuck in Yemen and unable to join him due to the ban. While he was there for Khaled’s birth, he had to return to the U.S. to financially support the family. Rahf was born after he left. “I’ve never even met my daughter,” he told legislators. “I have never held her in my arms. I’ve only seen her through photos and videos.”
Tuesday was also historic in that it was the House’s first-ever hearing on Muslim civil rights, and Republicans decided to mark that by inviting a member of an anti-immigrant hate group to testify. The Center for Immigration Studies’ Andrew Arthur used his testimony to claim the “travel orders” were “often misunderstood,” as well as to produce lots of terrorist fearmongering, even though what the Muslim ban is actually doing is blocking people such as Hend, Khaled, and Rahf.
This isn’t the first time Republicans have invited hate group members to testify, either. CIS’ history was in no way lost on Rep. Ilhan Omar, who said at the hearing, “The Southern Poverty Law Center has designated your organization as a hate group, citing your repeated circulation of white supremacists and anti-Semitic writers. The Washington Post has rebuked the research from your organization on terrorism and immigration, and CIS’ defense of the Muslim ban.” Omar said that she was appalled, and everyone at the hearing should be appalled.
The administration’s Muslim ban, the Council on American-Islamic Relations told legislators in a written statement, “is responsible for separating thousands of families. It has kept loved ones from being together for countless weddings, graduations, funerals, and in the case of Shaima Swileh, it nearly kept a mother from seeing her dying 2-year-old son again before he was taken off life support.”
And it has continued to keep one dad in New York devastated. “Hend has the best heart,” Alghazali said. “She wants to take care of people. Her dream is to become a nurse. She can’t do this in Yemen, but can pursue her dreams in America … in my heart, I felt that we would be together in America soon. I am a U.S. citizen and we were married. What could go wrong?”
