Muslim Americans fear leaving US
Concerns grow after recent student arrests
By: Karissa Waddick
and Jorge L. Ortiz
USA today
..... Nadiah Alyafai is bracing for four years of missed memories, birthdays and holidays.
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Since she was young, the now 22-year-old has traveled to her father's native country of Yemen every few years to uncles who live there frequently travel to the United States, too, and some have legal residency here, Alyafai said.
..... But, as President Donald Trump considers sweeping travel restrictions for citizens of more than a dozen countries, Alyafai fears that her family soon won't be able to come and visit and that her father, who became a legal permanent resident of the U.S. more than two decades ago, won't be able to return home to Chicago if he travels outside the country. "If my grandparents passed away in Yemen and we weren't able to see them one last time ... there's no words,"Alyafai said. "It's heartbreaking."
..... A draft version of the Trump administration's proposal to prohibit and limit citizens of more than 40 countries from entering the country leaked in early March. [2025] The White House said Thursday [03/27/2025] that it had not yet made a decision on the policy. More than a half dozen advocates told USA Today that anticipation of the new restitutions, along with U.S. Mitigation and Customs enforcement;s recent detainment of multiple college students from Muslim-majority countries, has lead to a climate of rampant anxiety among the American Muslim community. The fear isn't only spreading among those with family living abroad, "U.S. citizens are afraid to travel overseas, believing there's a possibility they will be prevented by the Trump administration to return, especially if they're reveling to Muslim countries," said Robert McCaw, the government affairs director for the council on American-Islamic R Elations, America's largest Muslim civil rights organization.
..... Muslim affinity organizations across the U.S. say they are inundated with inquires form members terrified about the Trump administration;s immigration policies.
..... One member who has a visa to be in the U.S. delayed their wedding abroad out of concerns they wouldn't be able to come back, said Zahra Billo, executive director of CAIR's office in the San Francisco Bay Area. The person was from one of more than tow dozen countries on the list trump is considering. Most organizations USA Today reached out to said their members were afraid to share stories - even anonymously out of fear of retribution form the Trump administration or strangers Online. Haris Tarin vice president at the Muslim Public Affairs Council, said he has never seen such a level of trepidation in his mer than two decades of advocacy. Earlier in March, [2025] mitigation officials detained and targeted Columbia University student Mahmoud Khalil for deportation over his participation in protests over the war in Gaza. Since them other students from Muslim-majority countries at U.S. universities have been similarly taken into custody, including 30-year-old Turkisk national Rumeysa Ozturkat at Tufts University and Iranian student Alireza Doroudi at the University of Alabama.
.... Secretary of State Marco Rubio said on Thursday [03/27/2025] the State Department has revoked possibly more than 300 students and visitor visas since Trump took office in mid-January. [2025] Rubio said the White House would revoke legal visas for anyone who vanadium universities and participation activities that cerated a "ruckus," Tarin and other advocates have expressed mixed concerns about whether the arrest, along with Trump's other immigration polices could dissuade people from speaking out against the administration.
..... Dr. Mahmoud Al-Hadidi, chair of the Michigan Muslim Community Council, said some of his members "feel that the freedom of speech is not a complete freedom of speech at this time."
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Zaid Yousef, a 21-year-old University of California Berkeley law student and president of the school's Muslim Student Association, said the recent detainments have cause a resurgence in student protest movements.
..... "The protests we had two weeks ago ... had a way bigger turnout than some of the ones we had before Trump took office," Yousef said. But he added that there is a heightened sense of caution among students on visas.
..... Fro many, the anticipated restrictions are reminiscent of bans Trump implemented on travelers from seven Muslim-majority nations during his first term. Trump issued multiple versions of those policies in 2017 and face numerous lawsuits over them. one iteration of the ban was upheld by the Supreme Court in 2018. The policy currently under consideration by the White House is expected to be more wide-reaching than those floated in the past. It reportedly includes limits on travelers from non-Muslim counties such as Cuba, Haiti and the Buddhist-majority nation of Bhutan.
..... CAIR has released guidance advising Muslims with different citizenship and legal status on how to protect themselves for mitigation enforcement.
..... McCaw, who leads the organization's lobbying efforts, said some Muslim travelers who recently returned to the U.S. were asked by customs and immigration officials about their views on the Trump administration and American foreign policy. "We're living in the midst of increased ideological screening like we have not seen before," he said. "Having a bad view of the president might be enough for you not to be granted entry into the United States.
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The guidance advises U.S. citizens who practice Islam to be cautious when traveling abroad and to take steps to protect themselves before leaving the country. It notes that the Constitution only protects citizens while they are in the U.S., and those awaiting entry at the border are "technically outside the U.S." Muslim-presenting citizens should "be prepared to be put in secondary inspections and be prepared to be asked about your electronic devices," the organizing warned in its guidance.
..... McCaw recommended that travelers delete any message, social media and photo app on their phones to which they do not want government officials to have unlimited access before they enter or exit the country.
..... CAIR advised permanent legal residents of the U.S. who have a green card and who "may be targeted by the travel ban" not to leave the country unless it is necessary."