WASHINGTON POST -- Persis Karim is the inaugural Neda Nobari Chair of the Center for Iranian Diaspora Studies at San Francisco State University. She is a second-generation Iranian American. She wrote this opinion piece for the Washington Post.
“Long after the utter chaos following its implementation, the ban continues to turn the lives of Iranians and Iranian Americans upside down,” Karim writes. “Sara N., a former student of mine who works at a Bay Area agency providing services to newly arrived Iranian immigrants and who asked that her full name not be used because of her own status as an asylum seeker, describes debilitating confusion. Some attorneys think people should still apply for the same diverse visas that have always been sought; others understand this ban as effectively ending family petitions — that the I-130 form can no longer be filed.
“She said others encourage Iranian Americans and immigrants to move to other countries where they will be more welcome. She suspects that her organization will not have clients in a year or two, simply because there will be no new Iranian immigrants to work with.”
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