The 21-year-old senior at the University of Iowa was an activist protesting the government when he lived in Syria. He fears officials would force him to join the military if he went back.
“Going back to a revolution is not a possibility. … It’s an extremist civil war now that I’m not interested in taking part in,” he says. “All my friends that were once activists with me are now either dead, missing or refugees in different countries.”
TPS, he says, has allowed him to get a work permit and in-state tuition to study. Next year he plans to begin dental school.
Shakally says he’s optimistic US officials will do the right thing.
“If not,” he says, “they would be truly sending people to their death, and history will not forgive that.”
Congress created TPS in 1990 as a form of humanitarian relief for people who would face extreme hardship if forced to return to homelands devastated by armed conflict and natural disasters.
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