OMAHA, Neb. (AP) - An Afghan family became among the last refugees to land in Omaha in the wake of President Donald Trump’s executive order freezing all refugee resettlements.
Rahimullah Rahimi, his wife and three young children arrived at Eppley Airfield on Wednesday after flying from halfway around the globe, the Omaha World-Herald (https://bit.ly/2k0faUP ) reported.
The family was embraced by relatives who gave them long, sometimes tearful hugs. The refugees’ sponsor family - John Detisch, Hillary Nather-Detisch and their three children - also greeted them.
Lacey Studnicka, who helps coordinate refugee resettlement for Lutheran Family Services of Nebraska, said the group had a lot of families scheduled to come in February, but that it received cancellation notices.
The group thought the Afghan family would be the last to make it to Omaha before the full ban took effect. But Lutheran Family Services spokesman Fa’iz Rab said Thursday that it learned that two Myanmar families from a Thai refugee camp were scheduled to arrive in Omaha on Friday. The families’ flights had been cancelled earlier in the week, Rab said.
The president’s order suspends all refugee resettlements for 120 days and bars for 90 days any travel into the U.S. from seven Muslim-majority countries. It also indefinitely barred Syrian refugees and cut the number of refugees who will be accepted this year from 110,000 to 50,000.
The executive order is part of Trump’s agenda that he says is necessary to assure that “radical Islamist terrorists” don’t enter the country.
It’s unclear when refugee resettlements will resume. Trump’s order allows for exceptions, including for people from Iraq or Afghanistan who receive special immigrant visas after working as interpreters for the U.S. military.
The Rahimi family came in on that program, as Rahimullah had worked at a U.S. base near Kabul.
Rahimullah Rahimi said he was excited to land in Omaha, where he’s hoping to find a good future for himself and his children
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This story has been corrected to show that the Afghan family is among the last refugees to land in Omaha before the U.S. ban, not the last.
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Information from: Omaha World-Herald, https://www.omaha.com
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