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January 2, 2019

Son of Yemeni Woman Who Sued to Get Travel Ban Waiver Dies in California Hospital
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In California, the 2-year-old boy whose Yemeni mother was banned from
entering the U.S. due to the Trump administration's travel ban died
Friday. Abdullah Hassan, who was an American citizen, had a rare brain
disorder and was being treated in the U.S., but his mother, Shaima
Swileh, had to sue in order to get a waiver to travel because she was
from Yemen-one of the five majority-Muslim countries whose citizens are
barred from entering the U.S. They were reunited just over a week before
the toddler's death. This is Abdullah Hassan's father, Ali Hassan.

Ali Hassan: "We are here today because my government failed our family.
I am a U.S. citizen. My son is a U.S. citizen. The Muslim ban kept my
wife from coming to the U.S. for over a year. It forced me to choose
between my son's health and keeping our family together. We are not
angry, and we know our son did not die in vain. We hope, through
Abdullah's struggle and passing, that people who are affected by the
Muslim ban, from Yemen, Libya, Iran, Somalia and Syria-that we hope,
through his life, policy will be changed and families will be reunited."



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