Somali refugee in Columbus hopes to be reunited with wife, kids after lawsuit settlement over Trump order

Afkab Hussein, a 32-year-old Somali refugee, has been waiting for his family to join him in Columbus since he was resettled here in 2015. President Donald Trump's bans targeting travel from Muslim-majority countries had made that impossible, but a settlement in a federal lawsuit against the bans says the cases of the plaintiff's family members, such as Hussein's, must now be expedited.  Though Afkab Hussein has never lost hope of being reunited with his wife and young son, the settlement last week of a class-action lawsuit that he joined as a last resort gives him renewed hope. The settlement of the case, Jewish Family Services v. Trump, states that the federal government must expedite the processing of more than 300 refugees, Hussein's family included, who were part of the class-action suit. Get the news delivered to your inbox: Sign up for our politics newsletter “It's a big step,” Hussein, 32, of the North Side, said in Somali, speaking through a translator. “I am very happy with the lawsuit and the result, and I'm hoping that will reunite me and my family.” Hussein, originally from Somalia, applied for his wife, Rhodo, and their then-newborn son, Abdullahi, to join him in the country after he was resettled as a refugee in 2015. They were all set to join him when Trump issued his first travel ban in the form of an executive order in January 2017. A subsequent executive order, issued in October 2017 and the impetus of the lawsuit, cited security concerns with the refugee resettlement program as reasoning for the ban, and called for federal agencies to create new screening and vetting standards for people entering the country. The policy halted Hussein's wife's case, causing elements of the vetting, such as the medical check, to expire, forcing her to start over again. “Afkab should have never had to sue the federal government just to be reunited with his wife and then-infant son, who had already been approved for resettlement,” the Rev. John L. McCullough, president and CEO of Church World Service, said in a statement. “And yet, he is unfortunately not alone — thousands of families' lives have been torn apart by President Trump's racist and xenophobic policies that continue today.” The government needs to be held to the terms of the settlement, said Church World Service, which is affiliated with Community Refugee and Immigration Services (CRIS), a Columbus refugee resettlement agency.