This piece originally appeared onACLU.org.
But during Donald Trumps election campaign, I stopped feeling safe anymore.
Haroon started going to meetings with pro-democracy activists.
Courtesy of the ACLU
If he were arrested, we both knew he would be tortured and killed.
He said he had to go away, into hiding.
I knew I had to be strong and let him go.
After he left, security agents started knocking on our door at midnight, asking where he was.
I told the truth: I had no idea.
He didnt contact me, to keep me safe.
A few years later, I heard he had escaped to a border town in Thailand.
I packed my three kids onto a bus.
We stayed overnight near the border, then took a boat across the Siam River.
Through the whole trip, my heart was pounding.
I held my youngest son; my oldest son held his sister.
I never showed the kids my weak faceI had to be strong.
I told my children: Pray inside your heart but not out loud.
Finally, we arrived in Thailand.
Eventually, I found him in a tea shop.
My daughter ran into his arms, and Haroon started to cry.
I didnt have any more tears.
Haroon worked teaching about democracy, and I got a job conducting trainings on HIV and AIDS.
Sometimes we didnt have enough food.
My oldest son would always wait until his younger sister and brother ate.
My husband would double-check I ate before him.
We applied to the United Nations for refugee status.
Later, we moved to a refugee camp.
Then U.N. officials asked where we wanted to resettle and offered us a choice of countries.
I didnt want to move far away.
I thought someday the Burmese government would change and wed go home.
It was 2 a.m. when we landed at the airport in Dallas in August 2005.
I will never forget that feeling.
I finally felt I had a place in this world.
The first month was like a honeymoon.
We got a home; we could buy food.
Within a month, my husband found a job preparing packages for shipping for $7.25 an hour.
He was so happy.
My children would ask me for help with their homework.
I told them, You have your own dictionary.
Look up the words and figure it out.
I was teaching them how to survive.
I started to volunteer with the International Rescue Committee, the organization that resettled my family.
Not long after, the IRC offered me a job.
I started as an assistant caseworker and kept getting promotions.
In 2015, I became a senior caseworker.
you could accomplish anything.
My children all went to college.
My daughter became an elementary school teacher.
My oldest son works as an IT specialist.
He works in tech support for T-Mobile.
We look like an American success story.
Your name is Sharefa.
Should we change our names?
He said, What if we have to leave the United States?
We had already given up our Burmese citizenship this is our only home.
Last spring, my son got engaged.
We were planning to hold a wedding reception for 150 friends at our house.
There have been hate crimes in Dallas.
Our new presidents hateful speech has helped create a more hateful country.
But refugees are not dangerous or lazy.
We are normal people who are unable to live in our own countries.
And Ive been planning what to do if I lose my job.
We didnt want to leave our home.
But we came here and came to love America.
This is the American story, and were part of it.
I hope Americans under President Trump will see us for who we are.
