 Good morning, Hickets Tuesday, so I am a total sucker for airport reunions, and because I've spent about a third of my adult life in airports, I've seen a lot of them over the years. But a couple weeks ago, I got to see, well, okay, so this is Sasha A. waiting at the airport for his wife and son. He was born in Burma, also known as Myanmar, and as a young man, he was taken from his community by the army and forced to work on road construction. The conditions for forced labor in Burma are horrible, and it remains a problem despite the steps toward democracy the country has made in the past decade. Beatings by soldiers are common, and deserters have been executed. Persecution of religious and ethnic minorities is also common, and Sasha A. is both. He is a Christian and a member of the ethnic Chin minority. Sasha A. escaped his forced labor crew in 2008 and eventually found his way to Malaysia, where he registered as a refugee with UNHCR, but because he couldn't legally work in Malaysia, he had to live on the margins of the social order. Then again, he couldn't risk returning home because now he would be considered a deserter. He did consider himself lucky, though, to find unofficial work in a restaurant, where he met Tetet, a fellow Burmese refugee who was a waitress in that restaurant. They fell in love and got married, but their refugee cases were being processed separately. The bureaucracy faced by refugees is often quite dizzying. There are so many layers of vetting and checking, and only a tiny fraction of people are ever approved for resettlement. Also, critically, if you do get approved for resettlement, that news can come at any time, and when it does, you have one chance to take it or leave it. So in 2012, four years after escaping to Malaysia, Sasha A. received permission to come to the United States, but because Tetet's application was being vetted separately, she did not. Together, they decided that A. should go, partly because they'd been told it was easy to reunite spouses once one was in the United States. So in December of 2012, with Tetet eight months pregnant, Sasha A. left Malaysia for Indianapolis. There are more than 13,000 Burmese refugees now living here in Indianapolis. Sasha A. joined that community, but he also joined the broader Indianapolis community. He found a church and friends and a job. He works in a cliff bar factory, but the very first thing he did upon arriving was file for family reunification. Quick pause to note that refugee resettlement has not increased U.S. crime rates in Indianapolis or elsewhere. In fact, it is associated with community crime rates dropping, and also there is little evidence that refugee resettlement negatively affects employment or wages, sources in the video info below. Right, so it's the beginning of 2013. Tetet is in Malaysia, caring for her baby son, Sasha Min, working when she can. The family seems certain to be reunited soon, but delays keep happening until finally, in April of 2014, Sasha A. learns that his wife and son will be coming to the United States. Except there is a clerical error. It turns out that there are two Sasha A's in a refugee database, and Tetet has been listed as being married to the other one, so the trip is canceled and the process starts again. At last, in 2016, Tetet and Sasha Min are again approved for resettlement. Visas are issued, travel plans made, and then comes an executive order halting all refugee resettlement into the United States for at least 120 days. Sasha A. said he started to wonder if he would ever get a chance to see his son. He prepared everything for the kid to start school in Indiana, but now they had to wait again. Would the refugee resettlement program ever restart? If so, would people already approved still be at the front of the line, or would it be 2014 all over again? But then, as suddenly as the executive order arrived, a court ruled much of it invalid, and days later, Tetet and Sasha Min were on a plane, first to New York, and then to Indianapolis. Sasha A. and I have both worked with a local refugee resettlement organization called Exodus, and through them I was invited to the airport for the reunion, and walking in I was so nervous. Would there be another executive order, a different court, reaching a different ruling? No. This time I got to witness the best airport reunion, as Sasha A. saw his wife for the first time in over four years, and held his son for the first time ever. No one can seriously think that reuniting this family poses a threat to the strength or the prosperity of the United States, but to be a refugee is to have much of your life defined by powers far beyond your control. Yesterday, a new blanket ban on refugee resettlement was announced for at least 120 days, meaning that many families who'd been praying for, and told to expect, reunions like this one will now have to wait. Now we can have, and we need to have, a discussion about how many refugees should be resettled in the United States each year, but a blanket ban is a terrible way to start that conversation. Instead, I believe that conversation must start by seeing refugees as people with individual stories who love their families and want them safe. Hank, I'll see you on Friday.