Travel ban inspires activism, apathy at Utah State
Sattar Dorafshan’s family didn’t tell him his father was dead until a month after it happened.
It was during final exams and they didn’t want to stress him out.
Between that and the difficulty of traveling home to Iran, Dorafshan didn’t find out his dad was gone until he asked.
“It was during the middle of school and I was like, ‘What’s the point to go back now?’ because they already buried him,” Dorafshan said.
It’s been a year and a half since then. He’d planned to travel home in May, but President Donald Trump’s executive order banning travel from Iran has now made that even more difficult. Even if Dorafshan did travel home, he wouldn’t be able to come back to the United States.
“It makes everything harder for me,” Dorafshan said in a Facebook message, adding that for now, he can’t visit his family anymore.
He’s stranded here, with a useless $1,000 plane ticket and a heavy heart.
Dorafshan, who’s working on his Ph.D. in civil engineering, said he thought it was likely that someday he’d apply for a work visa and become a permanent U.S. citizen. But now he’s worried that won’t happen, since Trump and U.S. attorney general Jeff Sessions have both expressed positions that, if implemented, would make it harder for U.S. companies to hire foreign workers like Dorafshan.
“I’m pissed even though I look like I don’t give a s—,” Dorafshan said.
Iranian Ph.D. student Amir Behbahanian said his parents’ plans to immigrate to the United States were put on hold when their appointment to interview for travel visas was canceled in response to the executive order.
“Disappointed is a strong word. We’re just waiting,” Behbahanian said. “If you’re an Iranian citizen you’re used to these kind of stuff.”
The travel ban was met with strong opposition from members of the USU community, even those who might not be directly affected.
“I don’t agree with the executive order,” said Blake Lyman, the USU Student Association’s athletics and campus recreation vice president. “I don’t like it, I wish it was completely gone.”
Lyman said he understood points could be made in defense of the ban but that he thinks it does “way more bad than good.”
“I think it’s a move just done to create division, a move to create controversy, and I think it really just hurts us,” Lyman said. “I think it’s xenophobic and it’s reactionary and I think it’s incorrect.”
Motivated by his concern for refugees from Syria and prompted by the newly-announced travel ban — which bans Syrians from entering the country indefinitely — Lyman decided to take action and try to help refugees within the Cache Valley community.
He’s planning a public benefit roast of himself — “styled after Comedy Central” — to raise money for local organizations that help refugees. The event, tentatively scheduled for March, will benefit USU’s No Lost Generation program — an organization of students dedicated to raising funds and awareness for refugees throughout the world.
Jarod Wilson, vice president of public relations for the No Lost Generation program, said he and other members of the organization believe the executive order wrongfully targets refugees.
“I would say that refugees aren’t people who want to move, they’re people who are forced to move,” Wilson said, “Refugees are people who really just need our help.”
Donations collected by No Lost Generation are used to contribute to Cache Refugee and Immigrant Connection, an organization that provides resources for refugees in Cache Valley, many of which come from Burma.
Wilson said he thinks more students will get involved in initiatives like No Lost Generation in response to an increasingly politicized climate surrounding the international refugee crisis.
“I think it’s important that we do need to stand up for what we believe,” Wilson said, and that students “try and contact senators and representatives and do everything that we can.”
USU student Yusuf Mumin tweeted that a meeting will be held tonight at 7 p.m. on the third floor of the Taggart Student Center to discuss ways students can help out refugees in Logan.
“It’ll be short/informative and everyone is welcome,” Mumin said in a tweet.
@alyssarbrts
Photo by Megan Nielsen