Travel bans directly affect GHS community

GRANGER High, is a school with an abundance of minority students, which essentially makes Caucasians at Granger a minority. People of color and their allies have recently been in turmoil due to headlines reporting the aftermath of Trump’s deportation orders. Countries such as Libya, Somalia, Yemen, Iran, Iraq, Syria, and Sudan have been listed in the refugee ban.

This problematic ban has included possible involvement with the families of Granger High students. “If my parents had been in the situation of being deported, which I personally believe is an option for all minority immigrants, it would break me. I cannot begin to imagine losing my father, ruining our dynamic as a family,” Derek Rojas (9) said.

Rojas went on to explain, “It’s not something that would benefit my mental health, constantly contemplating this. However, you still have to be open-minded to all possible options.”

The sorrow of even a thought so malicious crossing the mind is incomparable to others who have not yet experienced the daily reality of being a minority in the United States.

“I’m furious. It surprises me that America would have voted for someone whose intentions were clearly not good to begin with. My family is trying to reserve American citizenship to become citizens in the U.S. However, the process has been taking an immense amount of time,” Christian Marano (9) said.

Internationally, there have been reports such as that of two Christian Syrian refugees detained at the Philadelphia airport according to the nydailynews.com website.

“If the people had been settled in the United States, didn’t they go through some kind of process to be here? If you say they cannot go back, you are sending the wrong message. What Trump is doing is giving an excuse for radical Muslims to attack this country, implying that [US citizens] ‘dislike’ Muslims because of the ban. His campaign is purely based on division—dividing families, cultures, etc,” Mr. Bengali said.

“It is only showing one side of the story. As a Muslim, if I go to Mali, my native country, I would have the fear of not being able to travel back to the U.S,” he said.

Essentially, separating human beings from their families and lives will only create more conflict between the two opposing sides.

“The Muslims have a shop where we go buy meat, called the Halal Market. The Muslims eat the meat when it had been killed in a special ritual, in which the animal is preyed upon before it is slaughtered. The butcher, coincidentally, happens to be my friend. He called me last Saturday and said ‘why aren’t you hiding,’ I initially began to worry and said, ‘What? Are you OK?’ ”

“He responded, and had informed me about Trump. He had ordered me to hide because of this new law. I said ‘See, brother, I am not the one who is supposed to be hiding. I am a citizen of the United States. You, however, own a battleground full of Muslims, an even more suspicious setting to the government, so you have to be the one hiding before they come.’ ”

“The man had then told me ‘they already did, my shop had been taken down two days ago.’ My friend no longer has a place to sustain himself, because of the actions committed by this terrifying law,” Mr. Benghali said.

President Trump’s executive orders banning travel from several Muslim-majority countries are currently tied up in federal courts, but the tension created by the bans continues to affect Granger’s community and the nation.