Newsmakers, March 9, 2017

Women born in other countries say this week’s International Women’s Day may have taken on greater significance this year as the Trump administration issued an executive order that amounts to a travel ban for people from six Muslim-majority countries.

Several Women, some now U.S. citizens from countries like China, Ukraine and Iceland, who are living in the La Crosse area, spoke Wednesday at the annual International Women’s Day celebration in La Crosse.

Ghada Ghazal has lived outside of Syria since 2011 when violence broke out in her home country. The interfaith activist and educator lives in Ohio, but is visiting the La Crosse area meeting with various religious groups. Ghazal was planning to seek asylum in the U.S. to continue her work and education and said she was shocked by the travel ban.

“Many people, they come here seeking a land of freedom and equal status for people who are here in the U.S. and immigrants,” said Ghazal. “When I came here, what I find is the U.S. is full of immigrants.”

Ghazal isn’t sure if the travel ban will affect her status in the country or her efforts to gain asylum, but its made her rethink if it was a good decision to come to the United States.

“My lawyer she said like your case is strong. Everything is legal about your coming and your staying,” Ghazal said. “But you have to be careful, and to have a Plan B.”

Katrin Haraldsdottir just became a U.S. citizen earlier this year. Born and raised in Iceland, she now works as a nurse in La Crosse. She was angered by the Trump administration’s travel ban.

“I did not understand how one man could do that. You can’t judge a whole country, it’s like saying, ‘You’re all bad people, or you’re all terrorists,’” Haraldsdottir said.