For nearly a year, Cornell University Ph.D. student Kristy Perano has been advocating to get Muhammad into the U.S. Her family in California has agreed to co-sponsor Muhammad and his family if they are approved to come to the United States. He also has a brother and sister living in the U.S.
Perano, working with a Seattle-based lawyer, helped Muhammad and his family apply for humanitarian parole, which temporarily allows people into the U.S. if they have a compelling reason. The office of United States Citizenship and Immigration Services considers each case to decide if there are “urgent humanitarian or significant public benefit reasons” to let the person in. Muhammad has also tried to come to the U.S. as a refugee, but that case was denied, too.
Perano and her lawyer, Danielle Rosché, felt Muhammad and his family had a strong case because he is in danger directly due to his service to the United States. When the case came back denied after two days of consideration, Perano said she was not only surprised, but very upset.
“All my family is asking for is permission to pay all the expenses and assume all the liability to save the lives of a young family who lost everything because of their service to the U.S. military. The humanitarian visas provide a weak and temporary status for someone whose life is in imminent danger. I don’t see how the humanitarian aspects of this case could be any more compelling. The Taliban is hunting Muhammad, and it is only a matter of time before they find him. If they find him, they will torture and murder him and his daughters will end up on the streets or in human trafficking,” Perano said.
Thousands of people across the country have taken interest in Muhammad’s case. A petition Perano created on Change.org has more than 19,000 signatures as of Wednesday, including dozens from Ithaca. The petition calls on people to reach out to USCIS and and ask them to re-open Muhammad’s case.
~~~ Muhammad’s case has also been endorsed by No One Left Behind, an organization that advocates for interpreters who have served American troops in Afghanistan and Iraq. In a newsletter in December, No One Left Behind called the decision to not admit Muhammad’s young daughters, “outrageous and heartbreaking.”
All they have to do is get him to Mexico. Then he can just walk across the border as an illegal immigrant and the left will applaud and support him. However, as long as he is identified as having helped the US military, liberal influences throughout the government will block his immigration wherever and however they can.
Tillerson should step in.