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CBP officers took his jacket, his belt, his phone and his shoelaces, he says, and put him in a cold cell with a steel door and open toilet, along with five other people.
"I sat there and introduced myself to my cellmates. Most of them were engineers or something," Abu Romman says.
There were five mattresses on the floor for six people. Abu Romman says everyone crammed into the cell had advanced degrees, including an Indian engineer working for an American company.
Refugee and immigrants' rights organizations have gone to court over the issue of other travelers who were earlier denied entry to the U.S. after the ban. The case argues that the travelers were coerced by border officials into agreeing to be deported. This is similar to Abu Romman's account of his experience at O'Hare, though he is not represented in the case.
As of Friday afternoon, CBP had yet to comment in response to NPR requests about Abu Romman's experience.
Abu Romman had visited the United States once before, when he was in the sixth grade, and has wonderful memories of that trip.
"They were so welcoming – 'Come to us. See our beautiful land,'" he says. "Now they're telling you not to come, please. 'You're not welcome.'"
He's been told by the U.S. embassy in Jordan he can apply again for a visa, but probably shouldn't do it right way. Abu Romman says he probably will, but it's been a painful lesson. He seems genuinely puzzled by the assumption by border officers that he might try to stay in the U.S.
"I'm a lot safer in Jordan," he says. "You hear about people being robbed and killed [in the U.S.] all the time. My relatives say sometimes even in gas stations, there are bullet-proof windows between people working there and the customer. You never have to worry about that here."
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