Story highlights
Grassley didn't immediately answer his question
He was asking at a town hall in Iowa
Lawmakers across the country have headed back to their districts during the congressional recess and many are facing tough questions from their constituents.
At a town hall in Iowa Falls, Iowa, Tuesday, Republican Sen. Chuck Grassley received a question from an Afghan man who asked him for help to stay in the US in the face of the Trump administration’s immigration executive order.
Multiple federal courts across the country have granted requests to temporarily halt enforcement of the order, which bars foreign nationals from Iran, Sudan, Libya, Somalia, Syria, Iraq and Yemen from entering the country for 90 days, all refugees for 120 days and all refugees from Syria indefinitely.
The administration is expected to release a new order in the coming days. Critics consider it an effort to curb Muslims from emigrating to the US, while the Trump administration says its aim is to improve the safety of US citizens.
Zalmay Niazy, whose name was reported by CNN affiliate KCCI, said he’d been shot two times and experienced a roadside bombing while working as a translator with US armed forces.
“Who is going to save me?” he asked Grassley. “I am a person from a Muslim country and I am a Muslim. Who is going to save me here? Who is going to stand behind me?”
The audience of about 100 people cheered Niazy when he asked his question.
“We’re going down the list and when we’re done with that list … ” Grassley said, before he was interrupted by the audience.
After he heard from all of the town hall attendees, Grassley offered to have his office help Niazy with his immigration status. He also said President Donald Trump’s executive order on immigration “wasn’t carefully drafted,” his office said.
CNN’s Laura Jarrett contributed to this report.