ARI SHAPIRO, HOST:
With an update to a story that I've been covering for as long as I've been hosting this show - my first reporting trip as an ALL THINGS CONSIDERED host was to Toledo, Ohio, in 2015, where I met a young man living in a group house near the university.
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MOHAMMED AL-REFAI: My name is Mohammed.
SHAPIRO: Mohammed al-Refai was a 22-year-old refugee from Syria. In 2015, millions of Syrians fled the civil war in their country. Mohammed's family went across the border to Jordan, but something strange happened. While Mohammed got a visa to come to the U.S., his parents and siblings did not. Nobody knew why. Families are usually kept together. So he settled into the group house in Toledo with a bunch of American guys who called him Mo. He learned English and got a job at a halal butcher shop.
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REFAI: Chicken legs, chicken breast, goat, steak, lamb.
SHAPIRO: Meanwhile, he dreamed of visiting his family in Jordan.
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REFAI: My mom do a good food. Yeah. I miss her.
SHAPIRO: But after Donald Trump was elected president the first time, leaving the U.S. seemed like a bad idea. Mohammed was afraid he wouldn't be allowed back in.
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REFAI: I feel bad for they not with me, but I can't do anything for help them.
SHAPIRO: In 2017, the guys at the group house called me with an update.
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SHAPIRO: Who wants to share the good news?
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON: Mo - go. Say it. What'd you get?
REFAI: I have my green card.
SHAPIRO: A green card - he told his family he would visit them in Jordan but only once he was a U.S. citizen. He'd be eligible in 2020. But the pandemic kept him from taking the test for another two years. Finally, in 2022, it happened.
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REFAI: Yes. Yes. Yes. I'm so glad I am now American citizen.
SHAPIRO: And then I got this voice memo a few months later.
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REFAI: Hey, my friend.
SHAPIRO: Mohammed was messaging me from Jordan.
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REFAI: Now I'm with my family, my friend. Yep. How are you?
SHAPIRO: The newly minted U.S. citizen was finally reunited with his family. And that was the last time I spoke with Mohammed al-Refai until the Syrian regime fell almost two weeks ago. Syrians began flooding back home to cities they hadn't seen in more than a decade. I immediately thought of Mohammed, so we gave him a call in Toledo.
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REFAI: Hello?
SHAPIRO: Hey, Mohammed, it's Ari.
REFAI: Hey, Ari. Good. Good.
SHAPIRO: So where were you when you learned that the government in Damascus had fallen?
REFAI: I was awake up at night, and I have to go to work at around 3 o'clock. And I was - have my dad and my mom - they're watching the news.
SHAPIRO: Wait, wait, wait. Your dad and your mom were in Toledo?
REFAI: In Toledo, yes. Yeah.
SHAPIRO: So your family was all together when you got the news?
REFAI: Yes. And I wake up. You know, I sleep early because I have to work at night. And I wake up. I open the door, and I see my dad and my mom. They're watching the TV. I say, what's going on? They said, just watch the news. They're quiet, and everyone - they watch the news - my mom and my dad and my sister. And I look. I see it's Bashar - he's lost in Syria.
SHAPIRO: Yeah.
REFAI: And I call my job, and I say, hey, I need day off.
SHAPIRO: (Laughter).
REFAI: I'm not coming today to my work.
SHAPIRO: Did they understand?
REFAI: You know, I'm waiting for that day, like, in 15 years ago or 14 years ago.
SHAPIRO: Of course.
REFAI: Everyone - they excited. They have good day for that day.
SHAPIRO: Did your family hug? Did you cry? Did you sing? Like...
REFAI: Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. Like, there was crying, and there was, like - because it's, like, big, big - like, I don't know how we say, but it's big - good for us, you know?
SHAPIRO: Of course. Yeah. I have so many questions. First of all, was your family just visiting from Jordan? Are they living in Ohio now? What were they doing...
REFAI: Yeah, they...
SHAPIRO: ...In Toledo?
REFAI: They coming - living in Toledo, like, in - one years ago.
SHAPIRO: They moved to Toledo, so your whole family is together now.
REFAI: Oh, yeah. I have my dad and my mom and sister and brother. They come, like, in one years ago. And we got house, and we're living together now.
SHAPIRO: That's incredible. So how have you been celebrating these last couple of weeks?
REFAI: You know, we have a group at WhatsApp, and they text us. They said, hey, we will meet.
SHAPIRO: Is this a WhatsApp group of Syrians in Toledo?
REFAI: Yes, sir.
SHAPIRO: So everybody met up?
REFAI: Yes. Like, in - we'll say downtown of Toledo or Kroger parking lot.
SHAPIRO: The parking lot of the supermarket Kroger?
REFAI: Yes, sir.
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UNIDENTIFIED SINGER: (Singing in non-English language).
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UNIDENTIFIED GROUP: (Vocalizing).
REFAI: Everyone, they - like, they need that day.
SHAPIRO: Yeah. Does your family talk about going back to Syria? It has taken you so long to finally be together in the United States. Do you plan to stay in Toledo? What do you think about what comes next?
REFAI: Now we're not going to - back to home because I don't know what's going on next.
SHAPIRO: Sure.
REFAI: But - well, I don't know how long it take to fix everything. I don't know when they will, like, fix it. But we're not going back now. We - because here, it's more safe, more, like, good for us job, like, have more people, like, safe. But maybe not now, but maybe we'll go, like, visit back there. You know, I have a lot of friend. I have, like, family, still. I have family there. I have my aunt, my uncle back home.
SHAPIRO: When you talk to your aunt and uncle, what do they say?
REFAI: Oh, they, like - now, they can talk anything about Syria, like, because their freedom. They're not scared about anything. Like, they're not secret. And now they enjoy the life. Like, they can do anything. They go back home. You know, they are living in Syriabut not the house, the same house they own.
SHAPIRO: They had to relocate.
REFAI: Yeah. And now they go back to the house...
SHAPIRO: Wow.
REFAI: ...And they open the house. They clean it.
SHAPIRO: So your aunt and uncle have been able to return to the house that they had to flee during the war.
REFAI: Uh-huh.
SHAPIRO: How are your parents and your siblings adapting to life in Toledo?
REFAI: Like, good. My dad and my mom - I buy a car for my dad, and he has a lot of friend here. And my mom - she go to school, and she meet a lot of friends, and she like it. We not go back to, like, Syria now because everything here - it's good. Everything safe.
SHAPIRO: Yeah. When you sent me that voice memo from Jordan, it was the first time you had visited your family in seven years, and I'm sure it felt like such a rare, precious opportunity. Now they are with you every day. Does it feel normal? Does it feel like a dream? How does that feel after so long of being apart?
REFAI: It's dream when we got out Syria because the president - he was in Syria. He was, like, dangerous guy. And it's dream we got, like, here and safe, and no one killed. No one he got in jail. That was the dream. And we find good life, United States. And if we go back to Syria, like, I don't know when - like, we'll say 10 years, 20 years - but we will love America because she is saving us, and she took care of us, and she helped us, and she - also, she gave us passport, like, visa. This why we will love America forever.
SHAPIRO: Well, Mohammed al-Refai, it is so good to talk to you again, and I'm really happy to hear that your family is reunited at last.
REFAI: Thank you so much, Ari.
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UNIDENTIFIED GROUP: (Vocalizing).
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC) Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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