January 03, 2017
A five-year-old Iranian boy was reunited with his mother after being detained for hours at Dulles International Airport outside Washington, DC, following President Trump’s immigration ban.
After being held for a number of hours at the airport, the boy finally rejoined his mother, who then sang him “Happy Birthday.”
He was kissed by family members bearing flowers who took the boy home. His greeting was recorded on a video shown widely on television news shows.
Twitter users were quick to respond to the emotional video, noting with incredulity the preventing of a child from seeing his mother because of where he came from.
The incident prompted questioning by news media of Sean Spicer, the new White House press secretary. He responded, “To assume that someone’s age or gender or whatever that they don’t pose a threat would be misguided and wrong.”
Protests erupted at airports across the nation as dozens of arrivals from Middle Eastern countries were banned from entering the United States.
The protests sparked the hashtag #NoBanNoWall, urging lawmakers to oppose Trump’s strict immigration policies and halt building of a border wall between the United States and Mexico.
