A Syrian and his American wife are stuck in Iraq because of Trump's ban
IRBIL, Iraq — Wael Resol, 30, is an interpreter for journalists in this Kurdish area of northern Iraq. But he also is a Syrian, and that birthplace has dashed his hopes of living the American dream in Texas with his U.S.-born wife.
President Trump's total ban on letting Syrians into the United States because of security concerns, a restriction that went into effect Friday, has left Resol stuck here.
"(Trump's decision) affected me personally. I have had a migration case open for a long time," said Resol, who worked as a supervisor in an international school and a customer service representative at Qatar Airways before his current job.
He comes from a Muslim family but said that like many Kurds, he cares more about his ethnic background than his religion.
He said his wife, Katy McGarr of Amarillo, Texas, is a U.S. citizen and teacher who moved to northern Iraq to be with him. But now he's barred from moving with her to the United States, where he had hoped to get a master's degree in linguistics and buy a house in Texas.
Resol said he had applied for a visa three times starting in 2013. "The first time, I had an interview in Baghdad but didn't have enough time to prepare for the interview because I needed some papers from Syria and they were not fast (sending them)," he said.
"The second time, the visa center wanted more documents and sent a letter to my wife's old address" and he never got it, he said. The third time, they applied in October, hired a U.S. lawyer and have been in a holding pattern ever since.
Now, he doesn't know if he'll ever get in.
Resol said he knew "bad things" were going to happen to himself and other would-be immigrants once Trump was elected. He figured that securing a visa would be harder, the wait times would get longer. But he never expected a complete ban on people from his country.
"On the first day, I was pissed off. But I said to myself, 'This is reality. I have to accept it,'" Resol said.
My wife ... wanted to go back home for a long time but we can't. She's stuck here because of me," he added. "Sometimes I feel bad about that. But then I think, 'Just because I am Syrian, I have to blame myself?'"