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Barring of British Muslim Family Flying to Disneyland Touches Nerve Barring of British Muslim Family Flying to Disneyland Touches Nerve
(about 4 hours later)
LONDON — A member of the British Parliament is demanding an explanation for the refusal by American officials stationed at Gatwick Airport to allow a British Muslim family to board a flight last week to Los Angeles to visit Disneyland — a decision that the family says was made with no explanation or justification. LONDON — An uproar grew in Britain on Wednesday over what many saw as an unspoken new American policy to bar British Muslims from visiting the United States, after revelations that a large Muslim family, including young children, bound for a Disneyland vacation was inexplicably stopped from boarding a London flight to Los Angeles last week.
The case has generated intense interest on social media in Britain, where around 5 percent of the population is Muslim and where Donald J. Trump’s call two weeks ago to bar Muslims from entering the United States drew scorn and outrage. Social media reverberated with messages of anger and vexation by a diverse range of citizens in Britain, where around 5 percent of the population is Muslim, and where many people have expressed revulsion over calls two weeks ago by Donald J. Trump, a Republican presidential candidate, to prohibit all Muslim visitors. The Council on Islamic-American Relations, an advocacy group in Washington, said Wednesday that it had asked the Department of Homeland Security to investigate whether its officials had “implemented informally” Mr. Trump’s proposal.
“Widespread condemnation of Donald Trump’s call for no Muslim to be allowed into America contrasts with what is going on in practice,” the member of Parliament, Stella Creasy, who represents a district in northeast London, wrote on the website of The Guardian on Tuesday. “Faced with such claims, our concern should be to offer more than a critique of American Republican primary political positioning. Because this isn’t happening in the U.S. It’s happening on British soil, at our airports and involving our citizens and challenging their sense of place in our society too.” That request came amid signs that a number of British Muslims had been stopped without explanation at London’s Heathrow and Gatwick Airports in recent days — not just the 11-member Mahmood family, which was abruptly denied permission to board a Los Angeles-bound jetliner at Gatwick on Dec. 15.
On Wednesday, Daniel Hetlage, a spokesman for the Customs and Border Protection unit of the United States Department of Homeland Security, declined to discuss the specifics of the British family’s case, but denied that religion was a factor in deciding who could enter. Their terminated plans became a catalyst for growing publicity and criticism of the United States. A member of the British Parliament, Stella Creasy, who represents a district in northeast London, demanded an explanation from the Americans for why the Mahmood family’s vacation had been ruined. “Widespread condemnation of Donald Trump’s call for no Muslim to be allowed into America contrasts with what is going on in practice,” Ms. Creasy wrote on the website of The Guardian on Tuesday.
“C.B.P. officers are charged with enforcing not only immigration and customs laws, but they enforce over 400 laws for 40 other agencies,” Mr. Hetlage said in a statement, noting that more than a million passengers entered the United States each day. “The religion, faith or spiritual beliefs of an international traveler are not determining factors about his/her admissibility into the U.S.” Ajmal Masroor, a prominent British imam who has spoken out against Islamic extremism, said on Facebook on Wednesday that he was barred from boarding a flight at Heathrow on Dec. 17 by an American diplomatic official who gave no explanation.
Mr. Masroor wrote in a Facebook posting: “I am amazed how irrational these processes are but does USA care about what you and I think? I don’t think so!”
Daniel Hetlage, a spokesman for the Customs and Border Protection unit of the United States Department of Homeland Security, declined to discuss the specifics of any case, but he denied that religion was a factor in deciding who could enter.
An applicant to enter the United States “must overcome all grounds of inadmissibility,” Mr. Hetlage’s statement said, adding that there were more than 60 such grounds, “including health-related, prior criminal convictions, security reasons, public charge, labor certification, illegal entrants and immigration violations, documentation requirements, and miscellaneous grounds.” The statement did not indicate which grounds, if any, caused the British family to be denied entry.An applicant to enter the United States “must overcome all grounds of inadmissibility,” Mr. Hetlage’s statement said, adding that there were more than 60 such grounds, “including health-related, prior criminal convictions, security reasons, public charge, labor certification, illegal entrants and immigration violations, documentation requirements, and miscellaneous grounds.” The statement did not indicate which grounds, if any, caused the British family to be denied entry.
Some Britons expressed surprise that American personnel conduct passenger screenings at Heathrow and Gatwick, the two busiest airports in Britain.
Plainclothes officers from Customs and Border Protection are stationed at several “major gateway airports,” including Amsterdam; Doha, Qatar; Frankfurt; Madrid; Manchester, England; Paris; and Tokyo, along with Heathrow and Gatwick, a deputy assistant commissioner of the agency, John P. Wagner, said at a House hearing in June.Plainclothes officers from Customs and Border Protection are stationed at several “major gateway airports,” including Amsterdam; Doha, Qatar; Frankfurt; Madrid; Manchester, England; Paris; and Tokyo, along with Heathrow and Gatwick, a deputy assistant commissioner of the agency, John P. Wagner, said at a House hearing in June.
Under what is known as the Immigration Advisory Program, the officers “work in partnership with host government authorities to identify possible terrorists and other high-risk passengers,” Mr. Wagner said. “When a threat is identified, I.A.P. officers issue no-board recommendations to commercial air carriers, helping to prevent terrorists, high-risk and improperly-documented travelers from boarding commercial flights destined for the United States.” Under what is known as the Immigration Advisory Program, the officers “work in partnership with host government authorities to identify possible terrorists and other high-risk passengers,” Mr. Wagner said. The agency uses several automated data systems to detect suspicious travelers, but civil liberties campaigners have complained that many innocent people are denied entry without explanation or legal recourse.
The agency uses several automated data systems to detect suspicious travelers, but civil liberties campaigners have complained that many innocent people are denied entry without explanation or legal recourse. The Guardian quoted Mohammad Tariq Mahmood, a member of the family stopped at Gatwick last week, saying, “It’s because of the attacks on America — they think every Muslim poses a threat.”
The Guardian quoted Mohammad Tariq Mahmood, a member of the family stopped at Gatwick on Dec. 15, as saying that they had already checked in online, received boarding passes and reached the boarding gate when they were abruptly told they could not board.
“It’s because of the attacks on America — they think every Muslim poses a threat,” Mr. Mahmood told The Guardian. He said the family had no contact with terrorists and had no prior trouble with the law.