Muslim brothers from Yemen had to sign away their visas due to Trump's ban: lawsuit

The suit alleges President Trump's ban resulted in "bullying" of arriving immigrants into relinquishing visas

Published January 31, 2017 5:53PM (EST)

                (<a href='http://www.shutterstock.com/gallery-138331p1.html'>Christopher Parypa</a> via <a href='http://www.shutterstock.com/'>Shutterstock</a>)
(Christopher Parypa via Shutterstock)

A federal lawsuit filed in Virginia alleges two Muslim brothers from Yemen who landed in Washington-Dulles this weekend were forced to relinquish their visas that legally allowed them to enter the country because of President Trump's "Muslim ban."

The suit, which names Trump as a defendant, describes a "nightmare" scenario in which Homeland Security officials bullied Tareq and Ammar Aqel Mohammad by coercing them to sign documents they did not understand.

"This was a moment that they and their father had waited for and dreamed of for many years. But their dream quickly and inexplicably converted into a nightmare," the lawsuit said. "Instead of being permitted to transit to their connecting flight, Tareq and Ammar were handcuffed, detained, forced to sign papers that they neither read nor understood, and then placed onto a return flight to Ethiopia just two and a half hours after their landing."

The brothers were traveling on IR2 immigrant visas, which they were granted by virtue that their father is a U.S. citizen. They were en route to visiting him in Flint, Michigan.

According to the lawsuit, Homeland Security agents bullied the brothers into signing immigration forms called “Record of Abandonment of Lawful Permanent Resident Status.”

The suit alleges the brothers “neither read nor understood” the forms, and agents falsely claimed they would be ineligible to enter the United States entry for five years if they refused to sign the papers.

The brothers had to return to Ethiopia, where they currently wait in limbo. The suit claimed the brothers desperately want to move to America, away from the civil war that has engulfed Yemen.

Read the complaint filed below:

Trump lawsuit by Salon Media on Scribd


By Taylor Link

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Donald Trump Ethiopia Immigration Immigration Policy Lawsuit Muslim Ban Visas Yemen