They stopped Muhammad Ali Jr.
On 7 February, border agents at the Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood international airport held the son of the boxing legend Muhammad Ali for two hours. According to his lawyer, they repeatedly asked him about his religion.
Just last June, the world mourned the passing of his father, perhaps the most famous Muslim on the planet, as an American hero. Eight months and a presidential election later, Muslim Americans, including those with notable fathers, can’t even return to their own country without problems.
But, they keep telling us, it’s not a Muslim ban.
Muhammad Ali Jr is not a visa-holder from Yemen, Iraq, Iran or Libya. He is not a refugee from Syria or Somalia or Sudan. He was born in Philadelphia. If they won’t let him into the USA, where is he supposed to go?
He is not the only citizen to report problems re-entering his country of birth. Last week, Faruk Abdullah, a consultant based in Union City, California, was flying home from Berlin, where he had been meeting clients. Abdullah – who was born in Columbus, Nebraska, has no other citizenship and describes himself as “annoyingly patriotic” – told me he suddenly found himself in front of three KLM ticket agents who were flummoxed as to why the system would allow him to fly from Berlin to Amsterdam but not from Amsterdam to San Francisco.
One of the agents told Abdullah she suspected US immigration had put a block on his travel, “probably because of your name”. Abdullah, who has flown overseas many times without incident, contacted his wife in California. She quickly assembled a team of lawyers. By the time Abdullah reached Amsterdam, he was able to board his flight to America. He still doesn’t know why he was flagged or then permitted to board.
The experience has left him nervous about future travels, which are necessary for his work.
“I just have this bad feeling that there is a deliberate attempt to undermine US citizens and US Muslims,” he said. “If I am a US citizen, I should totally be treated the exact same way as anyone else that is a US citizen.”
Immigration lawyers are also reporting that a number of Muslim US citizens and green card holders have had their Global Entry cards mysteriously revoked or applications suddenly denied, even after having been told they had been approved.
But it’s not a Muslim ban.
Trump’s executive order of 27 January barred entry of visa-holders from seven Muslim-majority countries and all refugees for at least 90 days. That order was horrible, unconscionable and quite probably illegal, according to a decision by the ninth circuit court of appeals. But the situation may now be even worse.
It’s one terrible thing to bar non-citizen Muslims entry. It’s another to treat Muslim citizens differently from other citizens by law and policy. Judging by my social media accounts, American Muslims, who are constitutionally guaranteed the right to equal protection under the law, are in constant communication regarding plans for overseas travel.
Earlier this month, Asifa Quraishi-Landes, a law professor at the University of Wisconsin, wrote a widely shared Facebook post that sought to alert US Muslims to their rights when traveling.
“Dear US Muslim citizens traveling overseas,” it began. “There are numerous reports that US Muslim citizens (and many non-Muslim persons of color) are being detained at secondary checkpoints through customs [and being asked] suspicious questions such as religious scholars they follow, social media groups, and political affiliations.
“As a citizen, you have an ABSOLUTE right to come back into the US. They cannot send you to another country.”
Emphasizing that one should “maintain etiquette, politeness, and composure” while engaging any border agent, Quraishi-Landes offered 10 necessary tips for US Muslim travelers:
1. Tell them you are an American citizen.
2. Tell them you’ve identified yourself.
3. Ask to speak to their supervisor.
4. Tell them you want a lawyer (have ACLU, CAIR, or your lawyer’s number with you)
5. Tell them you believe you are being religiously profiled. You MUST be allowed entry as an American citizen and you do not need to answer questions about how you pray or what you believe in.
6. Do not sign anything – NOTHING.
7. If they try to make you reboard an airplane, sit down on the ground and go limp if they try to lift you. Never hit or push.
8. Keep asking for a lawyer.
9. Make sure someone knows your complete itinerary. Make sure someone is waiting for you at your destination or knows to expect you.
10. If you wish, email your name and itinerary to: airport@refugeerights.org. Attorney groups at your destination airport will be notified, just in case. Even if you aren’t a refugee, it will allow them to route you to an immigration attorney if you need one.
Quraishi-Landes has done us a valuable service by composing this list, which must be shared and absorbed. But it is beyond infuriating that such a list has to exist in the first place.