One Google Employee on Trump Order: 'It's Turned My Life Upside Down'
January 29 2017 - 12:46PM
Dow Jones News
By Jay Greene
Sanaz Ahari was looking forward to a visit. She is 37 weeks
pregnant, and her parents were going to attend to the birth of
their grandson in the coming days.
Now, it seems, that won't happen.
President Donald Trump's executive order Friday banned people
born in seven Muslim-majority nations -- Iran, Iraq, Libya,
Somalia, Sudan, Syria and Yemen -- from entering the U.S. for at
least 90 days. A federal judge on Saturday Blocked the enforcement
of parts of Mr. Trump's order, and the situation remains
uncertain.
Ms. Ahari, a director of product management at Alphabet Inc.'s
Google, was born in Tehran. She is one of 187 employees Google
contacted. The company counseled her to remain in the U.S., she
said.
Ms. Ahari lives in the Seattle area. Visiting her parents across
the border is out of the question, since she seemingly wouldn't be
able to return to the U.S. She worries the immigration order means
her parents, who are a two-hour drive away in the Vancouver,
British Columbia area of Canada, won't be able to visit her
either.
"It's turned my life upside down -- overnight -- without
notice," said Ms. Ahari, who is 34 years old.
In 1996, Ms. Ahari immigrated with her family to Canada, where
she is a citizen. Eight years later, after graduating with a
computer science degree from the University of Victoria, she
received an H-1B visa, issued to skilled employees to work in the
U.S. She subsequently received a green card, allowing her to live
and work permanently in the country.
Ms. Ahari is married to an American, and the couple has a
daughter who is one-and-a-half years old. But because Ms. Ahari was
born in Iran, Mr. Trump's order appears to restrict her travel. She
is grateful she wasn't traveling abroad when the order was signed,
which might have prevented her return to her family, she said.
"This is my home," Ms. Ahari said. "This is where my family
is."
In soft-spoken words, Ms. Ahari expressed shock about her fate.
A high-ranking executive at Google, she leads parts of the
company's global advertising-measurement business. "I'm a
contributing member of this country in a meaningful way," Ms. Ahari
said.
She travels abroad once or twice a year for work, and travels
internationally often to visit her parents and for vacations, such
as skiing in Whistler, British Columbia. She was hoping to travel
to Europe with her family this summer.
Now, she is uncertain of her next steps. Given the tense
relations between the U.S. and Iran, Ms. Ahari fears the
immigration order may become permanent.
She worries it may be a long time before her parents get to meet
their grandson and see their granddaughter.
"I don't see a lot of light at the end of the tunnel," Ms. Ahari
said. "I feel helpless. It is devastating."
Write to Jay Greene at Jay.Greene@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
January 29, 2017 12:31 ET (17:31 GMT)
Copyright (c) 2017 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
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