WASHINGTON: A Yemeni mother denied entry into the United States to visit her terminally-ill two-year-old son due to Donald Trump’s controversial travel ban, previously dubbed the “Muslim ban”.
Ali Hassan is a U.S. citizen. Baby Abdullah Hassan was born in war-torn Yemen with hypomyelination, a rare degenerative brain disease which has left him unable to breathe without a ventilator.
The toddler’s condition continues to deteriorate rapidly and he is on life support at an Oakland hospital. The parents are ready to take Abdullah off life support and end his suffering but they want his mother Shaima Swileh, a Yemeni national to visit the U.S. who wishes to hold his hand for the last time and say goodbye to her dying son.
“If I could take him off the ventilator and to the airplane, I would take him to her. I would let her see him. But he won’t make it,” the 22-year-old father told the SF Chronicle.
Hassan, in an emotional press conference held by Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) in Sacramento makes a plea with the U.S. State Department to unite his family.
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“My wife is calling me every day wanting to kiss and hold her son for the one last time. Time is running out,” he said, choking up. “Please help us get my family together again.”
But so far, the US Department of State has ignored the request for a ban waiver.
“We’re calling for the Department of State to issue a Muslim ban waiver to allow Shaima Swileh — the wife of a U.S. citizen, the mother of a U.S. citizen — to hold her child one last time and to allow her to mourn with dignity,” Sweilem said.
The family’s plight showcased the “most dehumanizing” effects of the travel ban said Hassan’s lawyer Saad Sweilem, an attorney for the CAIR.