Toddler finally with parents after 2 years

HERNDON, Va. – A toddler from Morocco was finally reunited with his parents Tuesday after a two-year separation because of immigration delays.

Ahmedyassine Boujrad, 3, arrived at Reagan National Airport for a reunion with Abdeloihab and Leila Boujrad. Abdeloihab Boujrad, 38, is a U.S. citizen originally from Morocco.

The couple, who live in Alexandria, had been trying since June 2005 to get the necessary paperwork for Ahmedyassine to join them in the U.S.

Later Tuesday, Abdeloihab Boujrad said how his son was asleep when he got off the plane. As his parents tried to wake him, the boy opened his eyes, saw his mother and father and muttered “I must be dreaming” before falling back to sleep.

His parents roused him a second time, and his eyes opened wide. “I am with you now,” the boy told his parents. “I rode three airplanes to see you.”

Immigration officials never explained the delay, but officials with the Council on American-Islamic Relations, which advocated on the family’s behalf, felt certain it was caused by the boy’s name. It is similar to Sheik Ahmed Yassin, founder of the Palestinian Islamic militant group Hamas, who was assassinated by Israel in 2004.

In June, after media reports highlighted the Boujrads’ plight, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services approved the paperwork allowing Ahmedyassine to immigrate.

“We were worried maybe he forgot us, but he was OK. He’s a good kid,” Boujrad said.

Boujrad was living in Morocco in 1997 and engaged to Leila when he won an immigration lottery that allowed him to come to the United States. He married his wife in 1999 but was unable to bring her to the U.S. until 2005. She is now a legal permanent resident.

In the interim, Ahmedyassine was born in May 2004 in Morocco. Leila reluctantly left the boy in the care of her sister in the fall of 2005 when her visa allowing her to emigrate to the U.S. was about to expire, assuming that the paperwork problems for her son could be handled quickly.