Trump Cracks Down On Refugees In Nashville's Little Kurdistan

Trump Cracks Down On Refugees In Nashville’s Little Kurdistan

- Matthew Petti

ARMED MEN PULL Shevan Arif and his family over at a busy intersection, asking questions and demanding to see IDs. Bystander cellphone video captures Arif nervously shaking his head and pleading with the two men, who mill around and make phone calls. They aren’t local police, and they’re evasive when he asks if he’s under arrest. Eventually, they realize Arif isn’t the person they’re looking for, and drive off without explanation.

This would be a fairly ordinary—though still terrifying— encounter in much of the developing world. What’s remarkable is that it took place in Nashville, Tennessee, as part of a massive immigration sweep that began this June. And the targets are members of a persecuted community who thought they had found safety in America.

When the Trump administration unveiled the second version of its travel ban in March, there was a curious difference from the first one. Iraq, which had originally been one of seven Muslim-majority countries whose citizens were deemed too dangerous to enter the United States, was now off the list. The Islamic State (ISIS) hadn’t been expelled from Iraq in the intervening month; rather, the change was a result of some behind-the-scenes politicking.

In exchange for Trump lifting the entry ban on Iraqi citizens, the Iraqi government agreed to issue papers that would allow the U.S. to deport people back to that country. For years, it had been nearly impossible for U.S. immigration authorities to deport Iraqi nationals, as Iraq just wouldn’t accept them—and for good reason. Despite brief lulls in the violence, Iraq has been in a state of civil war more or less since the American-led invasion toppled its government in 2003.