DEARBORN, Mich. (AP) — Eighteen months after the nation’s largest Arab American community helped propel Donald Trump to a second term as president, the prayers have not stopped.
In Dearborn, just outside of Detroit, families wait restlessly for word from relatives abroad, hoping they are safe, and mourning those already lost.
What began as anguish over the war in Gaza has widened. In a city with a large Lebanese American population, the expanding conflict in Lebanon has made the crisis even more personal. That anxiety is colliding with pressures at home, including heightened immigration enforcement, a strained economy and rising tensions after a recent attack on a synagogue.
“The community now sees that it could have got worse — and it did get worse,” said Nabih Ayad, founder of the Arab American Civil Rights League. “But the community was just so desperate.”
The national spotlight that once fixed on Dearborn during the 2024 election has faded. The mass protests have quieted. But inside mosques, at vigils and around family tables, conversations reveal a city still reeling, and one beginning to reckon with what comes next.
A community reckoning
Last week, Ayad joined other Arab American leaders for a meeting with The Associated Press. Many of them had been deeply involved in conversations with both Democrat Kamala Harris’ and Trump’s campaigns as each courted their vote during the last presidential race.
“We get this all the time by media, okay? It’s basically, ‘How’d that decision go? How’d that work out for you?’” Ayad said.
Among the nearly dozen leaders — ranging from county commissioner to state lawmakers to business owners — there was wide agreement that life had not improved since Trump was sworn into office.
It was a reminder of how deeply the conflict has seeped into daily life, and how places of worship have become spaces not just for prayer. That night, Peace Park in Dearborn filled with Lebanese flags as a vigil took over the main square.
