Read the full article by Odin Rasco at Sacramento News & Review
When Salwa’s husband received an offer for a job in California in the summer of 2024, it was not just an opportunity to progress his career: The option to move to the United States meant Salway, her husband and their two young children had a chance to break away from the volatile and violent conflict that had consumed Palestinian territories and Israel following the terrorist attacks and retaliations that had reignited the region since the previous October. (Salwa is not her real name; her identity is being protected for fear of deportation.)
Salwa’s optimism quickly dulled, however, as she witnessed what she described as a rapid shift in political rhetoric and, later, policy, regarding Palestinian territories and immigration during the run-up to the November 2024 election and President Donald Trump’s inauguration. Though her husband and children have U.S. citizenship, Salwa does not, a situation that has become a growing concern in recent months. Looking at the rapid upswing in Immigration and Customs Enforcement arrests and raids, paired with a media awash with politicians and pundits demonizing Palestinians and refugees, Salwa grew increasingly afraid of how familiar things felt to where she’d come from.
“It’s as if the U.S. immediately turned into Israel overnight,” Salwa said. “The surveillance, the amount of oppression and the speed at which it is happening, the executive orders, shipping people to prisons outside the U.S., it’s all part and parcel of this horrible phase the U.S. has come into.”