Yemeni mom wins fight to fly to US

19/12/2018

This news has been read 9559 times!

This recent but undated photo, released on Dec 17, by the Council on American-Islamic Relations in Sacramento, Calif, shows Ali Hassan with his dying 2-year-old son Abdullah in a Sacramento hospital. The boy’s Yemeni mother, blocked by the Trump administration’s travel ban, has won her fight for a waiver that would allow her to travel to California to see her son. (AP)

All Shaima Swileh wants is to give her son one more kiss before he dies. The Yemeni woman is about to get her wish after winning her fight for a waiver from the Trump administration’s travel ban so she can fly to California where her 2-year-old son is on life support.

The State Department granted Swileh the waiver on Tuesday after lawyers with the Council on American-Islamic Relations sued this week, ending a year-long battle for the family. Swileh is planning to fly to San Francisco on Wednesday to see Abdullah at UCSF Benioff Children’s Hospital in Oakland. “This will allow us to mourn with dignity,” the boy’s father, Ali Hassan, said in a statement provided by the Sacramento chapter of the Council on American- Islamic Relations.

Hassan, who is a US citizen and lives in Stockton, brought Abdullah to California in the fall to get treatment for a genetic brain disorder. “My wife is calling me every day wanting to kiss and hold her son for the one last time,” Hassan said, choking up as he made a public plea at a news conference Monday, a day before the government granted the visa. (AP)

This news has been read 9559 times!

19/12/2018