| Two-Year-Old Whose Yemeni Mother Fought Trump's Muslim Ban to Visit Him Dies in Hospital |
| Saturday, 29 December 2018 13:55 |
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Smith writes: "A terminally ill boy whose Yemeni mother fought for more than a year to visit him after being barred from entering the U.S. by the Trump administration's travel ban has died in hospital in California."
Two-Year-Old Whose Yemeni Mother Fought Trump's Muslim Ban to Visit Him Dies in Hospital29 December 18
Abdullah Hassan, 2, had suffered from a genetic brain condition and died at the UCSF Benioff Children’s Hospital in Oakland, the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) said in a statement released Friday. “We are heartbroken. We had to say goodbye to our baby, the light of our lives,” Abdullah’s father, Ali Hassan, said in the statement. “We want to thank everyone for your love and support at this difficult time. We ask you to kindly keep Abdullah and our family in your thoughts and prayers,” the 22-year-old added. A funeral is scheduled for Saturday. Hassan is a U.S. citizen and has family in Stockton, California but his wife, Shaima Swileh, is Yemeni. The pair met in war-torn Yemen in 2016 before moving to Egypt. Hassan and Swileh wanted to move to the U.S., but as a Yemeni national Swileh was barred from entering the country under the Trump administration's travel ban against people from some Muslim-majority countries. When Abdullah's health worsened, Hassan took him ahead to California for treatment and Swileh remained in Egypt where she continued to apply for a U.S. visa. As the couple fought for a waiver, doctors put Abdullah on life support. "My wife is calling me every day wanting to kiss and hold her son for the one last time," Hassan said, choking up at a news conference earlier this month. CAIR launched a campaign to publicize the family’s plight and the State Department granted Swileh a waiver the next day to visit her dying son. The 21-year-old mother arrived in San Francisco on Dec. 19. The Trump administration's travel ban, which replaced two earlier versions blocked by lower courts, bars travel to the U.S. from seven countries, five of which are predominantly Muslim: Libya, Iran, Somalia, Syria and Yemen. The other two are North Korea and Venezuela. The State Department said earlier this month that it could not comment on any individual case. But it said that visa applicants from nations under the travel ban can be granted waivers if they don't pose a security threat and if their absence from the U.S. would cause undue hardship.  |
terminally ill boy whose Yemeni mother fought for more than a year to visit him after being barred from entering the U.S. by the Trump administration's travel ban has died in hospital in California.