(SACRAMENTO, CA, 2/5/19) – The Sacramento Valley office of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR-SV) today commended two Northern California lawmakers for bringing Shaima Swileh and Ali Hassan to President Donald Trump ’s State of the Union address in order to shed light on Trump’s harmful immigration policies.
Swileh was kept apart from Hassan and their late 2-year-old son, Abdullah , by Trump’s Muslim Ban in a case that gained international attention in December.
Stockton residents Hassan and Swileh will be guests of Reps. Jerry McNerney , D-Pleasanton, and Zoe Lofgren , D-San Jose, respectively, at tonight’s address from 6-8 p.m. PST.
CAIR-SV, which represented the Hassan family in the December case, worked with the National Immigration Law Center (NILC), CAIR-San Francisco Bay Area, MPower Change and the No Muslim Ban Ever campaign to secure tickets for the couple to attend the Washington, D.C., event.
McNerney and Lofgren worked to ensure the couple could sit together at the event, and Hassan and Swileh are expected to meet other attendees impacted by Trump’s immigration policies.
CAIR-SV Civil Rights Attorney Saad Sweilem , who represented the Hassan family, said in a statement:
“We want to thank Representatives Jerry McNerney and Zoe Lofgren for inviting Shaima and Ali to be their guests at the State of the Union. As President Donald Trump delivers Tuesday’s address, Ali Hassan and Shaima Swileh will be in attendance to remind the nation of the true impact of this administration’s xenophobic agenda: the separation of families – including the families of U.S. citizens. Their presence is a reminder to our nation that our families are being devastated by unrelenting attacks on our immigrant communities, including the Muslim Ban and policies harming asylum-seekers.”
Sweilem said one of the ways to fight the Trump administration’s harmful immigration policies is to pressure lawmakers, including by signing CAIR’s Action Alert: Repeal the Muslim Ban, tinyurl.com/RepealTheBan .
Swileh, Hassan and their baby, Abdullah, were at the center of a case that shined a spotlight on the cruelty of the Muslim Ban and exposed the waiver process as a sham.
The family had pleaded and applied for a Muslim Ban visa waiver for more than a year to get Abdullah to California for medical treatment for a degenerative brain condition.
In October 2018, after only receiving automated replies to their desperate pleas, Hassan and Abdullah – who are both U.S. citizens – were forced to leave Swileh – a Yemeni national – behind in Egypt to get treatment for Abdullah as his condition was rapidly deteriorating.
In mid-December, with Abdullah on life support, an employee of UCSF Benioff Children’s Hospital in Oakland reached out to the Council on American-Islamic Relations in a final attempt to reunite Swileh with her dying son.
Within days, after CAIR-SV filed a lawsuit and led a massive media and social media campaign to spread the word about the family’s plight, the State Department granted a waiver on Dec. 18. Swileh was reunited with her husband and son on Dec. 19.
Days after being reunited with his mother, on Dec. 28, Abdullah died after capturing the hearts of people worldwide.
CAIR is America’s largest Muslim civil liberties and advocacy organization. Its mission is to protect civil liberties, empower American Muslims, and build coalitions that promote justice and mutual understanding.
La misión de CAIR es proteger las libertades civiles, capacitar a los musulmanes estadounidenses, y construir coaliciones que promuevan la justicia y la comprensión mutua.
END
CONTACT: CAIR-SV Communications Manager Kalin Kipling-Mojaddedi, 916-441-6269, kkipling@cair.com
