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'Proud refugee' Luol Deng stands with those impacted by Trump's travel ban

Dan Devine
Senior NBA writer

Many members of the NBA community have spoken out against President Donald Trump’s executive order on immigration since its signing on Friday, expressing their opposition to a travel ban that indefinitely bars Syrian refugees from entering the United States, that suspends the admission of any refugees for 120 days, that sharply restricts immigration from seven Muslim-majority countries — Iran, Iraq, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria and Yemen — for 90 days, and that sparked massive protests at airports across the country. On Monday, one of two NBA players from a nation on that list of “countries of concern” — Los Angeles Lakers forward Luol Deng, who was born in the city of Wau, which was formerly part of Sudan before becoming part of an independent South Sudan in 2011 — raised his voice, as well.

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The 13-year NBA veteran didn’t specifically reference the president, the order, the protests or the backlash. Instead, he offered a personal statement via social media that encouraged his followers to consider the human beings on the other end of the ban and the rhetoric surrounding it — a statement that begins, “I am a #ProudRefugee.”

I would not be where I am today if it weren’t for the opportunity to find refuge in a safe harbor. For the people of South Sudan, refugee resettlement has saved countless lives, just as it has for families all over the world escaping the depths of despair.

It’s important that we remember to humanize the experience of others. Refugees overcome immeasurable odds, relocate across the globe, and work hard to make the best of their newfound home. Refugees are productive members of society that want for their family just as you want for yours. I stand by all refugees and migrants, of all religions, just as I stand by the policies that have historically welcomed them.

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Deng and his eight siblings fled Sudan for Egypt in 1989 after his father, Sudanese government official Aldo Deng, “was jailed […] during a violent coup by Muslim rebels who imposed Sharia law,” as Michael Wallace detailed in a February 2015 ESPN.com feature:

Released after three months, Aldo and his wife Martha put their children on a plane to sneak to Egypt under the care of the eldest siblings, who would work and live as refugees. Luol’s memory is sketchy from those moments at age 4, but he’s heard stories of everyone “waking up at night and leaving all of our belongings behind to get onto a plane, hoping and praying they wouldn’t figure out who our father was.”

Aldo and Martha then escaped to Europe seeking asylum — a search that ultimately separated the Deng family for five years, connected only by the struggle they endured a continent apart. […]

After moving from Sudan to Egypt for five years, Deng and his siblings were reunited with their parents in South London, where Aldo Deng’s petition for asylum was granted in 1993. A few years later, 14-year-old Luol was at New Jersey’s Blair Academy after following older siblings to the U.S. in pursuit of an American education and college basketball opportunities.

“He struggled to adjust early,” said Charlie Villanueva, a Dallas Mavericks forward who was Deng’s prep school roommate at Blair. “What he experienced was very traumatic, very hard. He would put it behind, but there were times here and there when it would come up. He tried to be quiet and to himself. But if you kept plucking at him, he would open up.”

Luol Deng's family fled Sudan for Egypt when he was a child. (AP)
Luol Deng’s family fled Sudan for Egypt when he was a child. (AP)

Deng went on to become a McDonald’s All-American, the nation’s No. 2-ranked prospect in the class of 2003 behind LeBron James. He’d star for Mike Krzyzewski at Duke for one season before becoming the seventh overall pick in the 2004 NBA draft, then spend the first nine years of his career as a linchpin wing for the Chicago Bulls, earning two trips to the All-Star Game along the way.

He played a key role as a versatile forward on a Miami Heat team that overcame the loss of Chris Bosh to return to the playoffs, and signed a four-year, $72 million contract this summer to join a rebuilding Lakers squad; the dollar figure raised eyebrows, but L.A. was willing to pay a premium for a player who “commands immediate respect with his work ethic and ability to relate to teammates.”

Sports Illustrated legal analyst Michael McCann offered an overview of how Deng and Milwaukee Bucks rookie Thon Maker — also a native of Wau, whose family escaped to Uganda when he was 5 years old before later moving to Australia, the U.S. and Canada, and who travels on an Australian passport — might be impacted by the executive order’s ban:

While no NBA player affected by the executive order is subject to deportation, the capacity of any such player to leave the U.S. and re-enter is now in jeopardy. The order may make such as a player “inadmissible.” This means he could remain in the U.S., but if he leaves during the 90-day period he may not be able to re-enter until the prohibited period has expired. Deng and potentially Maker’s capacities to re-enter the U.S. would, like other persons in their position, be contingent upon the results of an uncertain “case-by-case” evaluation as directed by the Department of Homeland Security. As a result, if Maker or Deng was expected to travel with his team to play the Toronto Raptors, either player may encounter significant problems in trying to return to the U.S.

As of now, Maker and Deng’s NBA travel worries are more theoretical than actual. Neither the Bucks nor the Lakers will play in Toronto during the remainder of the 2016-17 regular season. Also, barring unforeseeable events, Deng and the 16-34 Lakers won’t make the playoffs. However, it’s possible that the Lakers could trade Deng to a playoff bound team before the Feb. 23 NBA trade deadline. […] the NBA playoffs are scheduled to begin on April 15, which is 76 days from today and thus within the 90-day prohibited window stipulated by Trump’s executive order.

The implementation of the “Muslim ban” led to chaos at airports in the U.S. and overseas. Some students, visitors and green-card-holding legal permanent U.S. residents from the countries identified in the executive order were stopped from traveling; others were blocked from entering the U.S. altogether. A federal judge in New York issued a temporary stay of parts of Trump’s order, preventing the deportation of travelers held at U.S. airports but not their detention; federal judges in Massachusetts, Virginia and Washington later followed suit.

Despite the judges’ rulings, the Department of Homeland Security on Sunday said it would continue to enforce the executive order, though White House Chief of Staff Reince Priebus did say green-card holders from the nations listed in the order would be allowed to re-enter the U.S. On Monday afternoon, the acting U.S. Attorney General, Sally Yates, wrote that for as long as she occupied that role, “the Department of Justice will not present arguments in defense of the executive order, unless and until I become convinced that it is appropriate to do so.” On Monday evening, Yates was fired.

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It is not fully clear how continue enforcement of the travel ban would impact NBA teams and its players. The league and the National Basketball Players Association are both trying to figure that out.

“We have reached out to the State Department and are in the process of gathering information to understand how this executive order would apply to players in our league who are from one of the impacted countries,” NBA spokesman Mike Bass said Saturday in a statement. “The NBA is a global league and we are proud to attract the very best players from around the world.”

“Anything that might compromise our players’ freedom as members of the global basketball community is a cause of concern for the NBPA,” the players’ union wrote in a Monday statement. “With that in mind, we have been working diligently to gather all available information regarding the recent executive order on immigration and its potential effect on our players. We’ve also been in regular contact with the players who could be impacted, and we will continue to monitor the situation very closely.”

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Dan Devine is an editor for Ball Don’t Lie on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at devine@yahoo-inc.com or follow him on Twitter!