USC student helped Americans in Iraq. He might be sent back.

COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) — Zaid Alibadi risked his life to help the American troops serving in his native Iraq. The U.S. government recognized the danger he faced when it admitted his mother and brother to the country as refugees who faced reprisals because of Alibadi's association with the U.S. military.

But when the PhD candidate's student visa runs out after he gets his degree at the University of South Carolina, he's been told he won't receive the same status — and now he and his wife face the prospect of being sent back next year.

"Do I want to go back? No," Alibadi says. "But what can I do? I don't know."

Alibadi applied for refugee status in 2014 shortly after he arrived in the U.S., but was turned down, even though his brother Hasan and mother Nahidah Soramaeere were subsequently admitted from Iraq as refugees.

A lifelong admirer of the United States, Alibadi started working with the U.S. military in 2011 after finishing up his undergraduate studies in Baghdad. As the Americans prepared to withdraw from the country that year to U.S. bases in Kuwait, Alibadi acted as their eyes and ears on the Iraqi street, feeding information back to his officer contact. He went on to work in the U.S. embassy, vetting Iraqis to work with Americans in the city's fortified Green Zone.

Alibadi consulted an immigration attorney and learned that in order to challenge his status in court, he would have to lose the legal status his student visa already gives him in the country. But that would complicate his hopes of landing a job after he finishes school this spring.

"Then I can't work," he said. "That's not an option."

As it is now, Alibadi's best hope is to land a job offer in the U.S., which would allow him to extend his visa for up to three years. Failing that, he and his wife...