WASHINGTON – As President Donald Trump announced his plans to ban immigrants from seven Muslim countries, including Iraq, the US Defense Department honored a refugee from Iraq who joined the US marines.
“From refugee to #Marine. @USMC Cpl Ali J. Mohammed takes the fight to the doorstep of those who cast his family out,” reads the tweet posted on Wednesday, January 25, The Hill reported.
The Defense Department’s tweet also includes a link to the US Marine Corps’ website and a profile of Cpl. Ali J. Mohammed.
From refugee to #Marine. @USMC Cpl Ali J. Mohammed takes the fight to the doorstep of those who cast his family out.https://t.co/oSXWGrzsL7 pic.twitter.com/UVlWsaESic
— U.S. Dept of Defense (@DeptofDefense) January 25, 2017
Mohamed’s profile described how he and his family fled Baghdad after receiving “numerous threats from extremists for their role in supporting the US.”
“I had to face a lot of challenges coming to America,” Mohammed says in the Marines’s profile.
“Trying to learn English and working to help support my family while going to high school was difficult.”
Muslims make up 1% of America’s 322 million population, according to Pew Research center.
News of expected Muslim ban was reported by Reuters on Tuesday, citing congressional aides who said that Trump was expected to sign executive orders that limited immigration for refugees “and some visa holders from Iraq, Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria and Yemen.”