It’s an early Tuesday morning, and everyone has something to say in my group chats.
Palestinian–Algerian artist Saint Levant has just announced the postponement of the North American leg of his highly anticipated Afandi tour, his first United States tour since 2024, citing visa issues.
“For the last couple of years, I’ve been having major US visa issues,” the artist wrote in an Instagram caption. “After the initial approval of my visa application to come see you in the US, I’ve been unexpectedly asked to undergo additional background checks, which could take a number of months.”
Less than six hours later, Egyptian rapper Wegz made a similar announcement: his US tour dates were postponed until further notice because “visa processing took longer than expected”.
The outcry on social media – and in my personal group chats – was instantaneous.
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This is not the first (or the last) time that US immigration policy has disrupted the careers of Middle Eastern artists. Last August, Moroccan-Belgian singer Dystinct postponed his North American tour due to visa delays, and a month later, Yusuf Islam, better known as Cat Stevens, delayed his own, citing visa issues.
In November 2024, Palestinian singer Zeyne was detained on her way to perform at US rapper Macklemore’s high-profile Gaza fundraiser.
All those incidents were just as alarming, yet most received comparatively little coverage or attention.
Zeyne’s detention, it should be noted, happened under the Biden administration.
That distinction matters. While the Trump administration has dramatically escalated immigration enforcement and restrictions, the problems facing immigrants, travellers and Middle Eastern communities did not begin in January 2025.
A conflicted community
Arab Americans have a conflicted, well-documented relationship with US immigration policies.
Perhaps more surprising, particularly for a population made up largely of immigrants and their descendants, is how many Arab Americans hold conservative views on immigration.
According to an Arab News-YouGov survey, 56 percent of respondents said US border controls should be tightened, and 51 percent said there are too many undocumented immigrants in the country – views held in even higher proportions by Arab Americans over 55.
‘This issue doesn’t impact us’ was a sentiment I heard repeated early and often – and it could not be more misinformed
This repetition of Republican talking points is alarming, showing just how removed our communities consider themselves from such narratives and the policies they shape.
And while most Arabs in the US were born here, about 68 percent of foreign-born Arabs are US citizens, according to the Brookings Institution.
Our communities are facing a reckoning on immigration, and the politics are far from straightforward. According to the same Brookings analysis, the economy and the war on Gaza were the top issues among Arab Americans during the 2024 election, with Gaza ranking first among Arab-American Democrats.
I came face to face with these perspectives during my time as a journalist on the road covering the 2024 election. Our communities, filled with so many contradictions around identity and belonging, often viewed immigration and its enforcement as issues somewhere on the periphery.
“This issue doesn’t impact us” was a sentiment I heard repeated early and often – and it could not be more misinformed.
No one is exempt
Among Arab Americans, the misconception persists that only the undocumented have something to lose under this administration’s policies.
But Jesse Franzblau, associate policy director at the National Immigrant Justice Center, told me that the administration’s immigration policies are affecting people who are legally present in the US, as well as those who are considering coming here.
“There’s so many people, you know, students who are just deciding not to come, also, and then students who are here are deciding to leave because of the risk,” Franzblau said.
That risk extends to artists, too.
“When you see these high-profile cases of musicians that don’t come because they’re not able to get visas, or often they’re not able to get visas for all of the people in their crew. It’s just not worth it to come to the US for the risk,” Franzblau added.
Under the second Trump administration, the crackdown has been severe.
US President Donald Trump has expanded his original travel ban to impose full or partial restrictions on nationals of 39 countries, many of them in Africa and the Middle East, as well as people travelling on Palestinian Authority-issued documents.
Domestically, raids by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) have terrorised immigrant and Latino communities.
The climate is now so hostile that Bad Bunny, the Grammy-winning global superstar who headlined the 2026 Super Bowl halftime show, excluded the continental US from his world tour amid concerns about immigration raids and the safety of his fans.
Closer to home
This administration has no intention of curbing the expansion of ICE detentions. In February, it announced plans for a 500-bed detention facility in Romulus, Michigan – a mere 25-minute drive from Dearborn, home to the largest concentration of Arab Americans in the United States.
The plan was abandoned in June, but only after the state of Michigan and the city of Romulus sued – and the warehouse was one of 11 ICE had bought across the country for detention, with at least four still moving ahead.
Let’s not forget Mahmoud Khalil, detained for months over his Palestinian advocacy, or Leqaa Kordia, who spent a year in ICE custody before her release in March.
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Since returning to office, Trump has moved quickly to overhaul the US immigration system: expanding expedited deportations nationwide; deploying 1,500 more active-duty troops to the southern border; restricting access to asylum; halting refugee resettlement; and reinstating the “Remain in Mexico” policy.
He also scrapped CBP One, the Customs and Border Protection app that migrants used to schedule appointments with border agents, stranding some 30,000 people in Mexico whose appointments were already booked.
His administration has expanded ICE’s enforcement powers, too, reversing a longstanding guideline that prohibited immigration raids in areas deemed “sensitive”, such as schools, hospitals and churches.
Together, the changes amount to a sweeping effort to make it harder to enter the country, harder to seek protection and easier for the government to detain and deport people already here.
Even if it did not affect us – even if it affected only our friends, our neighbours or the strangers we pass on the street – this administration is stripping dignity from people simply trying to build better lives for themselves and their families.
As Franzblau put it: “There is very much [a] divide-and-conquer type of strategy by this administration in their approach, tearing at the social fabric of communities, which has a deeply divisive impact.”
With the latest headlines about the postponement of both Saint Levant’s and Wegz’s upcoming tours, I pray this moment serves as a motivator for my community come November’s midterm elections.
I’m glad we’re paying attention. Now I hope that attention carries into the voting booth.
The views expressed in this article belong to the author and do not necessarily reflect the editorial policy of Middle East Eye.