Costa vows to fight Trump order trapping Los Banos man, child overseas
U.S. Rep. Jim Costa on Monday pledged to help a Los Banos man and his 12-year-old daughter return home to Merced County “as soon as possible and safely” and also said he would back legislation seeking to overturn President Donald Trump’s executive order on immigration blocking their travel.
Ahmed Ali, 38, remains stuck in a hotel in east Africa with his young daughter following Trump’s controversial order banning immigration from several countries, including Yemen, where Ali’s daughter was born.
Ali is the 38-year-old Yemeni-American manager of the Buy-N-Save Market in Los Banos. After years of legal wrangling, Ali’s daughter obtained an immigrant visa the day before Trump’s order was signed. The order prohibits people traveling to the United States from Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria, and Yemen, Costa noted in a statement issued Monday morning.
Costa also said “it’s obvious that keeping a 12-year-old out of the country is not strengthening the safety of our nation.”
Ali became a U.S. citizen in 2010 and has been struggling for more than a decade to take his family out of Yemen, a country embroiled in a civil war. Ali’s wife and two other children also are U.S. citizens, but it has been more challenging to bring his 12-year-old to the United States because she was born in Yemen.
“Since the 12-year-old girl went through all the rigorous channels to obtain an immigrant visa, and her parents are U.S. citizens, she would have been admitted as a lawful permanent resident and immediately would have been eligible to file for U.S. citizenship,” Costa said in the news release.
Costa blasted the order, calling it a “flawed policy” that “was not vetted thoroughly by his administration” and has the “potential to be ruled unconstitutional.”
“Let us never forget that America’s diversity is what makes us strong. Banning individuals, mostly women and children, from entering the United States is not the American way,” Costa said. “I will be supporting legislation that will rescind President Trump’s executive order because the executive order is flawed and is not making the American people safer.”
The travel ban sparked outrage in many cities across the U.S. over the weekend, triggering large protests at airports, including Fresno, Sacramento, San Francisco and Los Angeles.
This is a developing story. Check back for updates throughout the day.
This story was originally published January 30, 2017 at 11:11 AM with the headline "Costa vows to fight Trump order trapping Los Banos man, child overseas."