An Iranian family slipped through, touching down at the Lincoln Airport less than two hours before President Donald Trump halted refugee arrivals from around the world.
Abdul Bari's wife and two children should have been on that flight, too.
They were stuck instead at the airport in Kabul, their connecting flight from Afghanistan grounded due to apparent bad weather.
Instead of showing his wife and their boys, ages 2 and 4, around their new apartment in Lincoln, Bari is waiting to learn when he'll see them again.
"She still doesn't know that she's not coming," he said Saturday. "I'm just trying to control myself. ... They even got their boarding passes. They were all ready."
Local refugee resettlement agencies say they don't believe any Nebraska-bound refugees were among those detained at U.S. airports when Trump's Friday order took immediate effect, suspending entry even for those whose flights were already in the air.
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But at least four families who planned to depart for Lincoln over the weekend — two from Iraq, one from Afghanistan and a man from Sudan — now face uncertain paths forward. Two Afghan families who were expected in Omaha next week, their plane tickets already purchased, are in similar situations.
The Iranian family made it just in time.
"They're lucky ones. And they know they're lucky ones," said Vanja Pejanovic, who coordinates Lincoln-area resettlement for Lutheran Family Services of Nebraska, the state's largest resettlement agency.
Nebraska took in more refugees per capita than any other state in the fiscal year which ended in September. Trump's order scrambled plans for hundreds more, people scattered across the globe and planning to relocate here in the coming days and months.
"We want a reunion of my family as soon as possible," said Bari, 30, who arrived in the U.S. on Nov. 8, the same day Trump was elected.
He helped the U.S. military and State Department as an interpreter and quality control expert for half a decade before taking a position with the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, where he helped other Afghans who were internally displaced or seeking resettlement abroad.
More than five years ago, he started pursuing refugee status himself because helping Americans made him fear for his safety.
Now, if the United States pulls the rug out from under his family and others like them, it risks "losing the trust of the Afghan people very soon," he said.
U.S. Sen. Ben Sasse made a similar argument Saturday, calling Trump's executive order "too broad."
"If we send a signal to the Middle East that the U.S. sees all Muslims as jihadis, the terrorist recruiters win by telling kids that America is banning Muslims and that this is America versus one religion," Sasse, a Republican, said in a news release.
Nebraska state Sen. Tom Brewer of Gordon, a retired Army colonel who served six tours in Afghanistan, said the U.S. has an obligation to Afghans who aid U.S. troops and foreign officials.
But he stopped short of condemning Trump's executive order.
"If it is simply a pause to assure that there is a valid, safe process to determine whether or not we are bringing in people who don't put us at risk, then I think that's probably a valid concern," Brewer said.
Refugees from some countries, specifically Syria, often lack any documentation that could be used to verify their backgrounds, Brewer said.
He also argues that states should have more say in how many resettled refugees they accept and where they accept them from. He sponsored a bill in the state Legislature this year to require the Nebraska Department of Health and Human Services to track refugees resettled here and report on the associated costs to the state.
"I don't have an issue with bringing in refugees," Brewer said. "I have a concern with the inability of Nebraska to have any oversight on who's coming in and what resources are going to be necessary to support them here."
In Bari's case, he said:Â "I would personally get involved to try and help make sure that his family was able to come over. If they risk their lives for us, then we have an obligation, I believe, to give them opportunities."
Trump’s executive order suspends admission of all refugees for 120 days. It also temporarily bars all citizens from Syria and six other Muslim-majority countries — Iraq, Iran, Yemen, Sudan, Libya and Somalia — and calls for a new system to tighten screening of people seeking entry to the U.S. from those countries.
A vast majority of refugees resettled in Lincoln last fiscal year were from Iraq: 287 of the city's 367 arrivals, according to Lutheran Family Services. Another 15 came from Somalia, 12 from Iran and eight from Sudan.
Those individuals went through 18 months of screening or more, resettlement officials say.
Ruth Henrichs, president and CEO of Lutheran Family Services of Nebraska, said the agency doesn't help refugees based on their religion, but rather because of its own Christian-based mission.
"It is precisely because of our faith understanding of the Gospel call to serve and care for our neighbor that we do this work," Henrichs said in a news release.
“We cannot forget who refugees are — they are parents, children and the most vulnerable among us who have lost everything," she said. "They have fled discrimination, threats and violence — seeking safety and hope for a better future.â€