The son of legendary boxer Muhammad Ali was detained for hours by immigration official a Florida airport.
According to a family friend, Muhammad Ali Jr. was detained for two hours and questioned multiple times about his religion at Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport on Feb. 7.
Muhammad Ali Jr. along with his mother, Khalilah Camacho-Ali, were arriving at Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport on Feb. 7 after returning from speaking at a Black History Month event in Montego Bay, Jamaica.
Immigration officials pulled them aside while going through customs because of their Arabic-sounding names.
Immigration officials let Camacho-Ali go after she showed them a photo of herself with her ex-husband, but her son did not have such a photo and wasn’t as lucky.
Mancini said officials held and questioned Ali Jr. for nearly two hours, repeatedly asking him, “Where did you get your name from?” and “Are you Muslim?”
When Ali Jr. responded that yes, he is a Muslim, the officers kept questioning him about his religion and where he was born. Ali Jr. was born in Philadelphia in 1972 and holds a U.S. passport.
Ali family friend and former federal prosecutor Chris Mancini said the order is still being enforced and pointed to this as an example, per Strouse and Iannelli.
“This is an outrage,” Mancini said. “I don’t know what is going on with Mr. Trump’s claim that his ban is not religion-based. We do not discriminate in this country based on religion.”
Mancini also clarified that Ali Jr. had a United States passport and doesn’t have a criminal record.
Ali Jr. is exploring the option of suing the United States Treasury and Homeland Security as a result.
President Donald Trump issued an executive order in January banning immigration from seven Muslim-majority countries, but it was overturned by a trial court, and an appeals court elected not to reinstate it.
