逃离特朗普 | 纽约客
10:05 on Friday morning, a young Iraqi couple named Khalas and Nada were trading panicked texts. Would Nada escape Iraq before President Trump’s executive order barring refugees took effect, or would Trump’s pen-stroke bring all their plans to ruin?
周五早上十点五分，年轻的伊拉克夫妇哈拉斯和纳达惊慌地互发短信。纳达能在特朗普难民禁令生效前逃离伊拉克吗？或是特朗普大笔一挥，他们的计划全都完蛋？
The day before was their second anniversary, but they couldn’t celebrate together: Khalas lives in Washington, D.C., and Nada in Sinjar, in the north of Iraq. Khalas, a former interpreter for the U.S. Army, was granted a Special Immigrant Visa for his service to America. He came last July, thinking that Nada would arrive shortly thereafter.
昨天是他们结婚两周年，可他们没办法共同庆祝：哈拉斯住在华盛顿特区，纳达尔住在伊拉克北部的辛贾尔。哈拉斯曾是美军翻译官，由于为美国服役，他获得特别移民签证。他去年七月来到这里，以为纳达很快就会跟过来。
They are also Yazidis, members of a pre-Islamic religion whose adherents have been severely persecuted in recent years, particularly by the Islamic State.
他们还是雅兹迪族人，他们属于前伊斯兰教时期的一个宗教派别，近年来，其信仰者一直遭受严重迫害，尤其是伊斯兰国的迫害。
Khalas had been to the U.S. four years earlier as part of a troupe of students from the American University of Iraq, Sulaimani (A.U.I.S.), performing Shakespeare throughout the country. Khalas played Brutus in “Julius Caesar.” He would have been within his rights to claim asylum on that first trip, but he was still full of hope for the future in Iraq.
哈拉斯四年前是位于苏莱曼尼的伊拉克美国大学戏剧团的成员，他们在全球巡演莎剧，哈拉斯饰演《尤利乌斯•凯撒》中的布鲁图斯。第一次出访时他本有权要求避难，可他仍对伊拉克的未来充满希望。
One of ten siblings, he grew up on a farm outside the Yazidi village of Khanasor, six miles from the Syrian border. His family had a small orchard, some sheep, and cows. They learned English by reading books and mastering vocabulary cards.
他出生在汉那索村外的一个农场中，距叙利亚边境仅6英里，这里是一个雅兹迪聚居区，他有10个兄弟姐妹。他家有一个小果园，一小群绵羊和母牛。他通过读书和记词汇卡学习英语。
When the Americans invaded, he realized his language skills were needed. At eighteen, he became one of the youngest interpreters the 3rd Armored Cavalry Regiment ever had.
美国入侵时，他意识到自己的语言技能有用武之地。18岁时，他成为美军第三装甲团最年轻的翻译。
At the time, there wasn’t a lethal stigma surrounding such work, especially within the Yazidi community. “Yazidis didn’t look at Americans as occupiers,” he told me. “If you were an interpreter, people would respect you more.”
当时，做翻译官算不得什么要命的耻辱，尤其在雅兹迪族群中。“雅兹迪人不认为美国人是占领者。”他对我说。“如果你是个翻译，人们更加尊重你。”
Dispatched alongside troops patrolling the city of Tal Afar, he was fired upon constantly. On one mission, he accompanied U.S. soldiers door to door as they inquired about water quality—there were reports of a cholera outbreak in the area. Khalas and an American sergeant were questioning an Iraqi and his son at the front gate of their home when an insurgent opened fire with an assault rifle.
与在塔勒阿法尔巡逻的部队一起时，他多次被人射击。在一次任务中，他和美军士兵一起挨家挨户地询问饮水质量，当时该地区发生多起霍乱。哈拉斯和一名美国中士在一个伊拉克父亲和他儿子家门口问话时，一名武装分子用突击步枪向他们开火。
The sergeant was hit in the legs, the boy was shot, and the father ran off. “It became chaos,” Khalas recalled. “The sergeant was falling down, so I took his weapon, which was jumping around. I put his hand on my shoulder and I dragged him into the house to protect ourselves.” He bandaged the sergeant’s legs while they waited for backup.
中士双腿中枪，儿子被射杀，父亲逃走了。哈拉斯回忆说：“当时一片混乱，中士倒下了，我拿起他弹开的武器。我把他的手搭在我的肩膀上，把他拖进屋子躲避。”等待后援时，他为中士的腿做了包扎。
Later on in his service, Khalas was riding in convoy behind a Humvee that was hit by an I.E.D. Grenades began sailing in from a nearby village. “There was no place to protect ourselves,” Khalas said, ”but we had to take our friends who have died out of the Humvee.” He ran through the field of fire to help pry the bodies of three Americans from the wreckage.
后来，哈拉斯坐在一辆护送队的悍马车上，遭到简易爆炸装置袭击。手榴弹从附近的村子里扔出来，“你根本没地儿躲藏，可我们必须带走死在悍马上的朋友。”他穿进火海，将三名美军士兵的尸体从废墟中了出来。
He was shot once, but the bullet lodged between his Kevlar vest and torso and left only a small scar, so he didn’t think much of it.
他中枪一次，但子弹卡在防弹衣和躯干之间，只受了轻伤，他也没有在意。
After two years with the Americans, he went back to school. In his free time, he formed a group of young poets and travelled from village to village doing readings. Nada, who headed the local women’s union that hosted one of his events, asked Khalas out on a date. “I loved your poems,” she told the startled young man, “but I think I love you, not just the poems.”
与美国人共事两年后，他回到学校。业余时间，他组建了一个年轻诗人社团，挨村给人读诗。领导当地妇联的纳达组织了其中一次活动，她约了哈拉斯。“我爱你们的诗。”她让小伙子大吃一惊，“可我想我也爱你，不光是你的诗。”
In August, 2014, the Islamic State massacred Yazidis throughout the Sinjar mountain range. Khalas had an eight-thirty class at the American University in Sulaymaniyah the morning of the attack. During a break, he glanced at his phone and found forty missed calls.
2014年8月，伊斯兰国在辛贾尔山脉的雅兹迪聚居区大开杀戒。发起攻击当天早上，哈拉斯正在苏莱曼尼亚美国大学上八点半开始的第一堂课。课间他瞟了一眼手机，发现有40个未接电话。
“We are running from Sinjar,” his father shouted, when Khalas reached him. Half his siblings were fleeing to the city of Dohuk, the other half into the mountains. Their farm, which the family had held for generations, was destroyed by the Islamic State, whose militants killed five thousand Yazidis in the first wave.
“我们正在逃离辛贾尔。”哈拉斯联系到父亲时，父亲大喊道。一半兄弟姐妹逃到山另一边的杜胡克市。家族经营数代的农场被伊斯兰国毁掉，第一波攻击中，他们就杀死5000名雅兹迪人。
Thousands of women were enslaved; those that hid in the mountain faced starvation and dehydration. Three days after the attack, President Barack Obama ordered airstrikes on the Islamic State to forestall a potential genocide of fifty thousand Yazidis.
数千名女人为奴，那些躲在山里的饥肠辘辘，营养不良。攻击发起三天后，奥巴马总统命令空袭伊斯兰国，以阻止五万人亚兹迪人再遭屠戮。
The following month, Khalas and Nada applied for the Special Immigrant Visa. The program was created in 2008, with bipartisan support, to issue visas to twenty-five thousand Iraqis with ties to the U.S.
第二个月，哈拉斯和纳达申请了特别移民签证。该项目2008年获两党支持通过，旨在为2.5万名与美国有联系的伊拉克人发放签证。
Khalas and Nada contacted Marcia Maack, the director of pro-bono activities for the law firm Mayer Brown, the primary legal partner to the List Project, who agreed to take on their cases.
哈拉斯和纳达联系了梅尔-布朗律所公益部主任玛西亚·马克，律所是List Project的首席法律合伙人，他答应帮助他们。
As his application wound through the gears of the U.S. bureaucracy, Khalas was required to submit documentation to prove that he was, in fact, an interpreter. He had a handful of dated commendation letters from several years earlier, but Maack located his commanding officers and requested new letters of support. Major Kevin Martin, U.S. Army Reserve, wrote a letter describing Khalas’s “exceptional performance” as an interpreter.
他的申请进入美国官僚体系，他被要求提交文件，证明他确实是一个翻译。他有一把几年前的表扬信，可马克找到了他的主管军官，要求提供新的证明文件。美国陆军后备队的凯文·马丁少校写信称哈拉斯作为翻译“表现出色”。
A few weeks later, Major Russell Washington, of the D.C. National Guard, stressed that Khalas had “provided faithful and valuable service to the US Government, and like the other interpreters, faced threat as a result of their employment and association with the United States military . . . it is my opinion he does not pose a threat to the national security or safety of the United States.”
几周后，华盛顿国民卫队的拉塞尔·华盛顿少校说，哈拉斯“为美国政府提供了令人信服且有价值的服务，因为为美军服役面临威胁……我认为他对美国国家安全不构成威胁。”
The screening process was arduous and slow-moving, but they were optimistic. In January, 2015, Khalas and Nada were married. In May, they received their Chief of Mission approval letter, a critical step in the visa process, setting them up for background checks and interviews with agents from the Department of Homeland Security.
审查过程艰难而缓慢，但他们很乐观。2015年1月，哈拉斯和纳达结婚。5月，他们收到长官的批准信，这是获得签证的关键一步，他们可以接受国土安全部的背景审查及探员约谈。
That summer, Khalas earned a degree in business, graduating as valedictorian of his class. In his commencement speech, he said, “It saddens me to remember that many of us are moving back to tents or cities far from our homes.”
当年夏天，哈拉斯获得商学学位，成为班里的毕业演讲者。在毕业演讲中，他说，“想到我们许多人从家园搬回帐篷里或流散到城市中去，这让我悲伤。”
That fall, Khalas and Nada had their first security interview. They were told to wait.
In April, 2016, eighteen months after applying, Khalas received his visa. With his performance at A.U.I.S., he was offered scholarships to remain for graduate studies, but he wanted to earn an American M.B.A. He dreamed of returning to Sinjar one day to start a private school. He was given until October to travel to the U.S.
那年秋天，哈拉斯和纳达接受了第一次安全约谈。他们被告知要等到2016年4月才能拿到签证，那时距提出申请已18个月。他在大学表现优异，被给予奖学金进行研究生学习，可他希望去美国读MBA。他梦想有一天回到辛贾尔自己开办一所私人学校。他获准10月去美国。
But there was a problem: Nada was still waiting. U.S. visa laws are inflexible, unconcerned with nuance, and annoyed by complexity. He could request an extension, but there would be no guarantees.
可还有一个问题：纳达还在等待。美国签证法很死板，不近人情，考虑不到复杂情况。他可以要求延期，但不保证能成功。
His might expire, while hers was approved. Maack urged him to come to the U.S., confident that Nada would receive her visa soon.
她的签证获批了，他的又可能到期。因此马克敦促他先去美国，他相信纳达很快会拿到签证。
Two months before the Presidential election, her visa was tentatively approved, pending a routine medical examination. She had a slight flu during the checkup, and, for reasons that she doesn’t understand, was told that it would take at least three months to process her results.
总统大选两个月前，她的签证暂且获批，但还要进行例行的体检。检查中，她得了轻微的流感，她自己也不明白怎么回事，说需要三个月来核实结果。
She was frustrated, but was certain the approval would come. In the hierarchy of risks, she was a Yazidi woman, married to a former interpreter who now lived in America. It was hard to conjure a more vulnerable situation.
她很沮丧，但相信最终会获批。在风险评估中，她是一个雅兹迪女人，嫁给了一个现在住在美国的前翻译官。在国内，没有什么比这种情况更易遭受伤害了。
In mid-December, her medical clearance came through, but she was told she’d need to come in for another security interview. The earliest available date was January 19th, the day before Donald Trump’s Inauguration.
12月中旬，她的医学证明通过了，但她被要求再做一次安全约谈。最早日期是1月19日，就在特朗普就职前一天。
On Trump’s first full day as President, she was informed that her visa was approved. Her Iraqi passport, with an American visa, valid for travel until March 7th, would be sent to her in Sinjar via D.H.L.
特朗普当总统的当天，她被告知签证获批。她的伊拉克护照贴上了美国签证，护照3月7日到期，将通过DHL寄送到辛贾尔。
While her passport was en route, a draft of Trump’s executive order leaked to the press. I worriedly thumbed through the pages, looking for exceptions for Iraqis with Special Immigrant Visas, but found none.
她的护照还在运送途中，特朗普行政令草案被泄露给媒体。我焦急地翻着文件，寻找伊拉克人特别移民签证的特例，结果没有找到。
Nada’s passport arrived on Thursday evening.
纳达的签证周四傍晚到了。
Early Friday morning, Khalas went on Priceline.com and bought a one-way ticket for her from Erbil to Dulles, with a twelve-hour layover in Dubai. She would depart at 2 a.m., Washington time, the following morning. Khalas knew about the proposed ban, but wasn’t sure if Trump would sign it that day, or whether it would apply to Nada.
周五一大早，哈拉斯去网站为她买了从埃尔比勒到杜勒斯的单程机票，在迪拜停留12小时。她将于华盛顿时间第二天凌晨两点启程。哈拉斯知道禁令这回事，但不确定特朗普是否在当天会签署，是否适用于纳达。
Maack told me that Trump would be signing the executive order that afternoon at the Pentagon. It was a jarring juxtaposition: the Pentagon employs more interpreters than any organization on earth. Some of these Iraqis, resettled through the List Project, now serve under the new Commander-in-Chief, having enlisted in the armed forces upon arriving to the U.S. Why sign an executive order that bans the people upon whom his troops depend?
马克告诉我说，特朗普当天下午在五角大楼签署行政令。这是明摆着的矛盾：五角大楼雇佣的翻译比地球上任何组织都多。其中一些伊拉克人通过List Project定居下来，现在正为新的三军总司令服务，他们一到美国就参军入伍。为什么要签署行政令，拒绝那些军队依赖的人呢？
“She wants to get on the plane, but we don’t know what will happen if she gets here! Will she have to go back?”
“她想上飞机，但我们也说不清到了这边会怎样。她会被迫遣返吗？”
I walked him through the decades of international treaties and conventions that prohibit deporting a refugee to the country from which they fled, but wondered if any of this would hold true in another hour.
我为他梳理了几十年来禁止驱逐从他那个国家逃出来的难民的国际条约和公约，可也不知道过一会儿还算不算数。
If Nada managed to board the plane, I said, she could claim asylum as soon as she landed. She would be taken into custody for a credible-fearscreening, but then released. Maack and her team began planning for the eventuality.
我说，如果纳达设法登机，她一着陆就要申请避难。她会被拘留，被审查，然后会被释放。马克和她的团队开始准备应对这种情况。
Just before Trump was scheduled to speak, an official in the State Department—who hadn’t yet seen the final version of the executive order—said that there would probably be a provision for people already in transit. I drafted an e-mail to Khalas and Maack with the subject line “Good News.”
就在特朗普发表演讲前，国务院的一名官员表示对在途的人可能会有个单独的规定，但他也没有看到行政令的最终版本。我给哈拉斯和马克起草了一封电子邮件，题目是：好消息。
At 4:30 p.m., the President signed executive orders in the Hall of Heroes, barring all refugees from entering the country, along with a hundred and thirty-four million people from Iraq, Syria, Libya, Yemen, Somalia, Sudan, and Iran.
下午四点半，总统在英雄厅签署行政令，禁止一切难民进入该国，包括伊拉克、叙利亚、利比亚、也门、索马里、苏丹和伊朗的1.34亿人。
There is no mention to the fact that U.S. forces have operated in five of the seven countries in the past year, or that these operations require interpreters and create refugees.
他压根没有提及美国军队过去一年中在这七个国家中的五个国家采取军事行动，而这些军队需要翻译，这会产生难民。
“I’m establishing new vetting measures to keep radical Islamic terrorists out of the United States,” Trump declared. “We don’t want them here,” he said. “We only want to admit those into our country who will support our country, and love deeply our people.”
“我建立新的审查措施，把极端伊斯兰恐怖分子拒之门外。”特朗普宣称。“我们不想要他们，我们只让那些支持我们国家和深爱我们人民的人来。”
Maack texted me. “Do you have a copy of the final text yet?” Khalas and Nada were desperate for guidance.
马克给我发短信：“最终版本你有吗？”哈拉斯和纳达急着想看。
When he opened the folder containing the executive order, the President squinted at it, and read haltingly, as though it were the first time he’d seen it: “This is . . . ‘Protecting the Nation from Foreign Terrorist Entry into the United States.’ “
总统打开装有行政令的文件夹，眯着眼一顿一挫地念，好像他第一次看到似的。“题目是《保护祖国，禁止外国恐怖分子进入》。”
“We all know what that means,” he murmured, before carefully rereading the title. As he signed it, he congratulated himself. “That’s big stuff!”
“我们都知道这意味着什么。”他嘟囔着，然后仔细地又读了一遍标题。他签署时，还自我庆贺了一句。“真了不起！”
Three minutes later, the State Department official who had just suggested that Nada would have safe passage sent a one-line e-mail: “Advice is she should not travel.” The official text of the executive order was now circulating, and it was worse than expected.
三分钟后，刚才说纳达可能会安全入境的国务院官员发了一封电子邮件：“建议她不要来。”行政令的官方文本正在传阅，比预想的还要糟糕。
The draft version had called for an immediate thirty-day ban. Nada’s visa was due to expire thirty-five days from Friday. They had considered waiting for the ban to lift, banking on that five-day window to escape Iraq.
行政令草本要求立即实施三十天禁令。从周五算起，纳达的签证三十五天后到期。他们考虑禁令到期后，指望利用那五天的窗口期逃离伊拉克。
But when Khalas anxiously scrolled through the final version, he found that the ban had been extended to ninety days. Nada’s visa would expire during that period, after which there was little hope of securing a new one, given the anti-refugee, anti-Iraqi posture of the White House.
可哈拉斯焦急地翻阅最终版本时，他发现禁令延长到九十天。纳达的签证将在这期间到期，考虑到白宫的反移民、反伊拉克姿态，她再获得新签证的机会微乎其微。
“What should we do?” he asked. Conversations like this dim the outside world.
他问：“我们该怎么办？”这样的对话让整个外部世界黯淡无光。
Throughout the course of the day, he had been remarkably composed on the phone. But when I tried to ask a light question—whether she’d packed a lot of bags—the line went silent for a spell.
一整天，他在电话里都相当平静，可我问了一个轻松的问题，她是不是打包了很多东西时，电话那边沉默了。
“She told me that she is only carrying her purse,” he said, shakily. “I told her to go buy some clothes, but she said ‘I will just come with whatever I’m wearing.’ ”
“我告诉我她只带了钱包。”他声音有点颤抖。“我告诉她买点衣服，可她说我就穿着身上这一身来。”
I heard him weeping. “She said she feels the same way as when she ran from isis. When she ran then, she only had her purse. She didn’t know if she was going to make it, just like now. . . .”
我听到他在抽泣。“她说她从伊斯兰国跑出来时也这么想，可跑的时候，只带了钱包。她不知道能不能行，就像现在一样……”
He apologized while he gathered himself. “I’m sorry. I haven’t eaten all day.”
他振作了一下，并道歉说：“对不起，我一整天没吃东西。”
Maack and her team at Mayer Brown prepared a document explaining what Nada would need to say if she made it to Dulles.
马克和他在梅尔-布朗的团队正在准备一份文件，告诉如果纳达到了杜勒斯，她该怎么说。
While Nada’s departure time approached, we scoured our contacts for someone at U.S. Customs and Border Protection, hoping to alert them to the fact that a highly vetted Iraqi woman with a one-week-old Special Immigrant Visa was represented by a powerful law firm.
纳达出发的时间到了，我们搜寻着某个美国海关和边境保护官员的电话，希望提醒他们知道，一个被高度审查过的伊拉克妇女有一张只有一周的特别移民签证，一个强大的律所正在给她诚邀。
“They can’t send her back if she expresses fear of persecution!” Maack said, as if to reassure herself.
“如果她担心自己受迫害，他们就不能把她送回去。”马克说，这更像是安慰自己。
At 11:36 p.m., Mohammed, an Iraqi who now lives in Los Angeles after helping Americans during the war, texted to say he had an emergency. His father had had a problem at the airport in Qatar.
11点36分，一个住在洛杉矶的伊拉克人默罕默德发短信说他有紧急情况，他也在战争中帮助过美国人。他的父亲在卡塔尔机场遇到了麻烦。
He’d left Baghdad that morning on a tourist visa, planning to visit Mohammed, but had just been blocked at the gate of his connecting flight. An American Embassy official had come into the terminal to tell him his visa was no longer valid.
父亲当天早晨持旅游签证离开巴格达，打算来探望默罕默德，但他在转机口被拦下来。美国大使馆官员来到机场，告诉他签证无效了。
“He said Trump cancelled it and he needs to go back to Iraq. Is this true?” Mohammed asked. “He’s a seventy-one-year-old senior.” He was confused, since his aunt and uncle had just arrived at LAX a few hours earlier.
“他说特朗普核销了签证，他要回到伊拉克去，这是真的吗？”默罕默德问。“他是一个71岁的老人。”他有点迷糊了，他的姑姑和叔叔几个小时前刚刚到达洛杉矶。
It became clear that as soon as Trump’s pen hit the page, refugees and citizens of the seven barred countries were not allowed in.
显然，特朗普的笔刚刚落纸，七个国家的难民和公民就不准入境了。
I relayed the news to Khalas.
我把消息告诉哈拉斯。
“Oh, Lord.”
“天啊。”
It was all slipping away until 1:50 a.m., on Saturday, when Khalas’s brother, who had dropped her off at the airport, texted that Nada had boarded the flight. Khalas was cautiously excited.
一直耗到周六凌晨1点50分，哈拉斯的兄弟送纳达到了机场，发短信说纳达登机了，哈拉斯略有宽慰。
Three hours to Dubai. I loaded up a flight tracker and waited anxiously for takeoff. Meanwhile, Mohammed’s panic was mounting. He was trying to book his dad a hotel room at the Qatar airport so he could rest, but his phone had died; the last he knew was that he’d been taken into a cell and had his passport confiscated.
三个小时后才能飞到迪拜。我下了一份航班追踪表，焦急地等着飞机起飞。另一边，穆罕默德恐慌加剧了，他想给父亲在卡塔尔机场订个酒店，可是电话没电了，他最后只知道父亲被关进号子里，护照被没收。
I returned to the flight tracker to see that the plane still hadn’t taken off.
我回来看航班追踪表，发现飞机还没有起飞。
And then: 2:46 a.m., Khalas texted again. “They did not let her enter the plane.”
凌晨2点46分，哈拉斯发短信来：“他们不让她上飞机。”
His brother’s message had not been correct; she had only cleared security. When she reached the gate, the FlyDubai staff ripped up her ticket. “The flight crew sent her back,” he texted, “saying they got orders that no Iraqis with American visas should be boarded.”
他兄弟的说法不对，她只是通过了安检。走到大门时，FlyDubai的工作人员抢走了她的票。“机组成员把她送回来了，说他们得到命令，拿美国签证的伊拉克人都不能登机。”
“Believe me, in one month if she doesn’t make it here, I am going back to Iraq,” he said. The Yazidi valedictorian will forfeit his visa. She will likely give up trying for another one.
“这么说吧，如果她一个月后还没来美国，我就要会伊拉克去。”他说。这位雅兹迪族毕业演讲者要放弃自己的签证。她可能也不会再次申请。
This is, perhaps, what the President and his advisers intended, with the brutal speed of the order’s implementation. For years, we’ve been told that government was inefficient, sloppy, and slow to react, but within minutes, it found a way to implement one of the most draconian refugee policies in our history.
可能这正是总统和他的参议希望看到的，所以行政令实施如此之快，几近残酷。多年来，我们听人们说政府无效懒散、应对迟缓，可几分钟内，它就推行了历史上最严酷的一项难民政策。
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