Richland doctor born in Syria reflects on war, refugee crisis

Dr. Iyad Jamali does the same thing every morning after he wakes up.

He checks the news for the latest on Syria.

For the interventional cardiologist based in Richland, the brutal and complex conflict there isn’t a distant mess. It’s personal.

Jamali was born and raised in Syria and still has relatives there, although he long ago made a home and life in the United States.

“Ultimately, it’s not just my family (that’s affected). It’s also a country I liked and I loved,” he said. “Sometimes they talk about a street that I’ve walked and it’s been destroyed.”

Syria borders Lebanon, Jordan, Iraq and Turkey. A civil war erupted in 2011, with millions displaced.

As the fighting rages, debate in the U.S. over accepting Syrian refugees is intensifying, particularly since the Paris terrorist attacks by the Islamic State, a force involved in Syria’s war.

More than two dozen U.S. governors have said they want to block Syrian refugees from settling in their states over security concerns.

The U.S. House of Representatives passed a bill last week to drastically tighten screening procedures for refugees from Syria and Iraq.

Obama has threatened a veto and said, “We are not well served when, in response to a terrorist attack, we descend into fear and panic.”

In an opinion piece in The New York Times, Gov. Jay Inslee — who’s said Washington will continue welcoming refugees, including Syrians — wrote that “the American character is being tested” and he’s always seen the U.S. as a place of refuge for those fleeing persecution and other horrors.

Jamali said it’s been painful watching the events in Syria unfold. He grew up in the western city of Homs, the son of two high school teachers.

He came to the U.S. in 1989, after graduating from medical school at the University of Damascus, Syria’s largest and oldest university.

Jamali completed a residency in internal medicine in Iowa, and cardiology and critical care fellowships in Wisconsin. He also has an interventional cardiology fellowship in Arizona under his belt.

In 1998, Jamali joined Inland Cardiology in Richland, a private practice that’s since become part of Kadlec Regional Medical Center.

His wife also is a physician — a pathologist with Trios Health in Kennewick.

Their daughter is completing a doctorate at Yale University, and their son is a freshman at Whitman College. Both graduated from Richland High School.

Jamali’s father died a few years ago, but his mother still lives in Homs, along with one of his sisters. “They go day by day,” he said.

Jamali’s brother, who studied in the U.S. as a Fulbright scholar, is a professor at the University of Damascus. Another sister lives in the U.S.

When it comes to Syrian refugees, Jamali urges compassion.

“I’m not saying the United States should open its doors to everybody who wants to come,” he said, adding that security and screening measures must be taken.

“But at the same time, refugees in general aren’t coming here just because they want to come. Refugees are coming here because they’re dying there,” he said. “It’s horrible, horrible, horrible circumstances.”

More than 4.2 million Syrians are registered as refugees, according to the United Nation’s refugee agency.

Washington welcomed 25 Syrian refugees from October 2014 through September of this year. That’s less than 1 percent of the 2,921 refugee and special immigrant visa arrivals in the state during that time period.

The highest numbers came from Iraq, Ukraine, Somalia, Congo and Burma.

Some of those 2,921 have started their new lives in the Tri-Cities.

World Relief Tri-Cities recently welcomed two Syrian refugees, and expects to resettle another few more — meeting them at the airport, arranging housing, assisting them with finding work and providing other aid.

The process of being admitted to the U.S. as a refugee is lengthy, taking 18 months on average, with multiple agencies involved, said Scott Michael, field office director for the local chapter.

“The Syrians who have arrived (in the Tri-Cities) have gone through a very strict background check process,” he said, adding that, “When you see the pictures of large groups of refuges and migrants walking into countries in Europe, that’s not what we’re going to have happen here in the U.S. It’s not what has happened in the past and it’s not what is going to happen in the future.”

Michael said that World Relief respects the concerns people have about security and welcomes them to reach out to their representatives, as the government determines the security measures.

“We are going to continue welcoming those who (are admitted) as refugees,” he said.

Jamali now has lived outside Syria’s borders for longer than he lived within them.

But it’s where he grew up, where he started his long medical career, where his mother, brother and sister still live. So he keeps tabs. He reads, he watches, he listens. He checks in.

Jamali said he sees the U.S. as enriched by its diversity and heritage as a melting pot of immigrants and refugees.

And Americans are generous people. “This is why the United States is a great place. This is why people want to come to the United States,” he said. “That’s how we should continue.”

This story was originally published November 21, 2015 at 4:00 PM with the headline "Richland doctor born in Syria reflects on war, refugee crisis."