Dear Friend,

It has been quite some time since we have provided an update on Mohammed’s case, simply because there has not been anything to report.  After Mohammed and his family were conditionally (re)approved for resettlement in 2017, there had been no further development in their immigration case since.  This was the result of both the Muslim ban and later a suspension of the Iraqi P2 refugee program.  While the program has since resumed, the residual effects of both the ban and suspension are still hard felt by our Iraqi allies attempting to seek refuge in the US.  Still, very few Iraqi refugees, even those who assisted the US, are being resettled.

We are, however, happy to share that Mohammed’s case has recently shown signs of new life as his family has been scheduled for interviews with USCIS that will take place in the upcoming weeks.  There is certainly renewed hope!  Where does this mean the case is in the process?  We are not exactly sure, but we have requested Members of Congress and the media to find us an answer.  And an award-winning foreign affairs columnist at a leading newspaper has agreed to write a story about our case later this month.

You may recall that the denial of the family’s resettlement case was overturned in 2017 after a 466-page appeal was submitted to the government which included over 100 letters of support and over 22,000 Change.org signatures.  The number of signatures has since grown and you are now one of almost 150,000 people who have signed on in support of Mohammed’s case.

You are an important part in our efforts to reunite Mohammed, who still lives under threat in Iraq, with his three American citizen children who live stateside.  Two of these American citizens are brothers who worked for the US military as Iraqi civilian translators, one of whom literally took a bullet in the face while assisting our troops.

While the number of Iraqi refugees being resettled in the US is still extremely low, there has been a significant uptick since March.  This coupled with the fact that that the family’s case is finally being readdressed by USCIS after years of impasse is encouraging.

We hope to have more news soon and may be requesting a Call to Action in an upcoming update.

Pete