Story by Dominique Moody,
A Maryland woman says she’s fearful of going to see her family in Sierra Leone after President Donald Trump announced a travel ban and restrictions targeting mostly African and Middle Eastern countries.
“Though I grew up here, my heart is in Sierra Leone,” said Sonia Staples, a resident of Prince George’s County. “It is my heart, okay. It is my heart.”
Trump said some countries had “deficient” screening and vetting or have historically refused to accept deported citizens or residents who were prone to overstaying their visas in the U.S.
Imam Teslim Alghali with the Sierra Leone Muslim Jamaat mosque in Hyattsville said his congregation was initially focused on mass deportations before Trump entered the White House, but they’re now pivoting.
“It’s going to create fear for sure and people are going to go back to the trenches,” Alghali said of the travel ban.
“When people do come to us with that fear as the main thing, we try to calm them down. Caution as to how they should leave and, also, we have resources that we can direct them to.”
“We saw it under Trump 1.0 where they kept going back to the Supreme Court and tweaking it based on, you know, the guidance that we they were getting from the Supreme Court,” said Diana Konaté, the deputy executive director of policy and advocacy for African Communities Together.
Konaté said support groups have been preparing for a travel ban.
“We’re going to fight it and we’re going to do whatever we can because we know that … as immigrants, we add a lot to this country,” she said.
Source: https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/maryland-woman-fears-going-to-african-home-country-amid-trump-s-travel-restrictions/ar-AA1GaJBi?ocid=BingNewsVerp