Just a quick story.
After six long years, a friend that my wife has cultivated on Facebook will be on a flight from Amman, Jordan to Chicago, IL, USA very soon!
Let me tell you, this man’s story is worth a better telling than I can provide here. I’ll give it a try below.
We will call him Ali, because that is what he calls himself, and it is a generic enough cover. He has always been relatively discrete, and it is no wonder why. He worked as a translator for the US military in Baghdad. This is not something you want being public information after our disastrous clusterfuck of an occupation. When we left, he left, taking nothing with him.
Jordan's policies toward Iraqi refugees means that he has been a second class citizen, working under the table. He learned last year, I believe, that his house in Baghdad had been fire-bombed. He would never have anything to return to for 6 long years.
And now, there is a chance he will see the first snowfall in his life in our already very great country.
PS Immigrating to this country is ridiculously hard; don’t let anyone suggest otherwise.