Back in January, an American expat who married an Iraqi found out that he had no way of flying back home from Singapore after President Trump closed the nation’s borders to refugees and citizens of predominantly Muslim countries.
His family was only able to return to the United States months later, after the travel ban was revised. During the perturbing period of their time in limbo, help came from the most unexpected source: stars from the National Football League (NFL) in America.
The Ringer reported the troubles that California native Randy Olsen faced in Singapore when news of the ban broke just weeks before he was due to move back to his home country. Olsen spent six years here working in cybersecurity, and it was in this country that he met his Iraqi wife — Zaineb Al-Qazwini, who holds a Ph.D specializing in cancer research — with whom he has a two-year-old daughter. Zaineb even has a green card, thanks to Olsen.
Like everyone else who took issue with Trump’s actions, Olsen went on social media to rant about the ambiguous travel and immigration restrictions, which initially caused authorities to disallow even green card holders to board flights to the United States.
“…I was told that if my family were to show up to a US border, green card in hand, that my wife could potentially be put in handcuffs and detained because of her current passport from Iraq,” wrote Olsen.
The post was shared widely and reached the feed of Tareq Azim, who grew up in the same town as Olsen. Being a refugee himself, the athletic trainer got in touch with the stranded man and sprung into action after hearing his plight. Being a coach to several high-profile NFL players, Azim texted them all to see if they could help. So they started pulling some strings.
Kansas City Chiefs All-Pro cornerback Marcus Peters, in particular, was a huge support. The 24-year-old budding NFL superstar went on Instagram to talk about Olsen’s issue to his massive following.
The post prompted over a hundred lawyers to reach out to Olsen and offer their services. Overwhelmed, the man narrowed the list down to four attorneys, who provided crucial advice to him during the distressing period. Amidst the ensuing chaos and confusion regarding Trump’s ban, the lawyers prepared the Olsens for “the most dire of situations”.
The lucky break came later when the travel restrictions were properly revised so as to not affect green card holders and folks with current visas. The Olsens left soon after for San Francisco, and settled in their new home there.
Looking back at the anxious period of time, Olsen remains “eternally grateful” for all the legal help he received from people he’d never met before.
“We are so grateful that it came out to what it did, but we were one of tens of thousands,” he said, noting to The Ringer that he was saddened about the people still having to deal with the ban.
“When you look at the support — people with the amount of followers of Marcus Peters, all of the heroes — it adds up to something very moving,” Olsen said.
As for the NFL star himself, he refused to comment on the matter, but told a team official that it was “mission accomplished”.
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