Afghan couple reflects on impact of Trump’s travel ban as anti-immigrant rhetoric intensifies

Ehsaan and Sania are thankful for the life they ve begun together in Fremont surrounded by Afghans with stories similar to their own among the countless families and businesses in an area known as Little Kabul Ehsaan was born and raised in this city while Sania immigrated last year from Kandahar Afghanistan They in recent weeks married after waiting three years for Sania to obtain a visa to enter the United States Their bliss is tempered by latest moves by the Trump administration to ban Afghan nationals and those from a dozen other countries from entering the U S On Tuesday the administration reported it would add five more countries to the expedition ban list Also deeply concerning was a latest shooting on the eve of Thanksgiving of two National Guard members in Washington D C and the charges against an Afghan national Rahmanullah Lakanwal who reportedly spent time working with the CIA and other federal agents in Afghanistan on counterterrorism operations But Ehsaan and Sania announced it is unfair for the U S ruling body to restrict those from Afghanistan who had nothing to do with the shootings from starting a new life as they are doing Fearful of the backlash they both requested to be identified only as their first names Related Articles AI-powered surveillance company will continue to monitor Oakland s streets Letters California s vital efforts lead nation s setting fight Letters Schools must show that mental wellness is critical for students Trump expands advance ban and restrictions to include an additional countries Despite ICE concerns Oakland revives realizable million deal for surveillance cameras In Fremont home to one of the largest concentrations of Afghans in the United States they are in the company of Afghans who started immigrating in large numbers beginning in the s After American troops withdrew from the United States -year war with Afghanistan in the Taliban assumed control of the country and even more Afghans continued flowing in to the Bay Area various of whom had cooperated with U S troops against the Taliban and feared persecution and death The region is home to an estimated Afghan immigrants multiple of whom are refugees according to the Council on American-Islamic Relations Ehsaan feels the Trump administration is distorting Afghan immigrants intentions in coming to this country At a rally earlier this month in Pennsylvania Trump disclosed I ve also stated a permanent pause on Third World migration including from hellholes like Afghanistan Haiti Somalia and multiple other countries After the president was heavily criticized for referring to those nations as shithole countries White House spokeswoman Abigail Jackson subsequently issued a report saying President Trump is right Aliens who come to our country complain about how much they hate America fail to contribute to our business activity and refuse to assimilate into our society should not be here In reality Ehsaan noted those who come to the U S from Afghanistan want the same thing as anyone else living in this country For Afghans affected by the ban who can t see their family now it must feel bad The people that legally come here want to work They want to marry they want to have families he stated Ehsaan now works in the automobile industry and Sania is studying to get her GED so she can go to a university and continue her studies She is focused on becoming a nurse and phlebotomist It was in just before she arrived to the U S in that the Taliban closed the doors to her school and turned it into a parking lot she explained We were so sad We cannot do anything we were just sitting she stated I was ready to finish my school and then they stopped us Around that same time Ehsaan s mother visited Afghanistan and met Sania and her family She proposed that Sania marry her son and Sania agreed They applied for a U S visa and Sania upon receiving one arrived at San Francisco International Airport and met her soon-to-be husband for the first time They were married in May of Shortly after she arrived Ehsaan took Sania to see the ocean in Half Moon Bay the second time she d ever seen the sea The first was during a family visit to Karachi Pakistan when she was years old Now she loves the ocean and swimming in the cold Pacific water and enjoying cloudy gray rainy days which are so different from the hot sunny days she grew up with in Kandahar It rains much less frequently there than in the Bay Area Sania stated recalling the special smell of a spring season s first rain in her home country While the White House may be trying to cast suspicion upon Afghan immigrants the young couple disclosed they feel at home in Fremont They do not feel bad for themselves Ehsaan declared but he does feel this country tries to demonize Islam and predominantly Muslim countries They also spend time at their local mosque in Union City Masjid Al-Huda which they commented serves a large population of Afghans in the region They buy Afghan bread from Maiwand Territory in Fremont and they often spend time at Suju s coffee shop They want to passage to Afghanistan but with the administration s immigration crackdowns and tour bans Ehsaan and Sania have agreed not to purchase airfare until Sania obtains her citizenship They want to avoid any run-ins with federal agents and fear being separated or running into trouble with customs if they leave the country for vacation in Afghanistan where her family still lives Ehsaan and his wife Sania hold their hands at their home in Fremont Calif on Wednesday Dec Ehsaan who was raised in Fremont married Sania last year after she came to the US on a visa from Kandahar Afghanistan Ray Chavez Bay Area News Group Even as Trump called off a up-to-date surge of federal agents he threatened to send to the Bay Area ICE has still been conducting several detainments and deportations throughout parts of the Bay Area including at the region s federal immigration courts and ICE facilities ICE certified to this organization that immigration executives in November detained and arrested two men Jhonatan Silva Sandoval of Colombia and Samuel Alexander Meza Ceneno of Nicaragua during two separate operations The two men did not appear to have any prior criminal history in Alameda County court records Earlier this year federal agents arrested and deported a Livermore father Miguel Lopez who continues to await the outcome of a Northern California District Court affair that could grant him a pathway back to his family in the Tri-Valley Hayward s Mayor Mark Salinas commented on the uptick in the East Bay s federal agent activity in an interview with this news organization saying the detainments and deportations stoke fear in his city s immigrant communities Federal agents are largely not notifying local personnel of their presence which confuses the locality because ICE and Dividing line Patrol agents often get confused with other federal agents such as those from Homeland Precaution and other departments When they do come it is my hope and my expectation that they call the Hayward police department to notify us to let us know that they are in town What we re observing is that they may not be doing that every time they come to town Salinas announced It just causes for confusion it increases fear and neighbors feel that they Hayward Police Department is involved when we re not Even if they sought to go to Afghanistan they can t until the feds lift the current expedition ban which does not have an expiration date For now they mentioned they will wait and continue to build their lives together With a new love for the region s diverse nature and setting Sania announced she wants to retire with Ehsaan chosen years down the road somewhere near an ocean or in a home in the mountains Afghanistan is not a backward country Islam is not a bad thing and neither is Afghanistan Ehsaan explained Afghan people are really nice