Muhammad Ali claims that on his flight back from Jamaica he was detained and interrogated for over two hours at the Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood Airport, mainly because he is a muslim.
He’d taken a trip with his mother, Khalilah Ali, Muhammad Ali’s first wife, and was reportedly stopped by immigration officers.
Ali’s mother got through, but he was held in a small room and questioned for two hours, according to reports.
Ali Jr’s spokesman Chris Mancini also told the reporters that the 44-year-old was asked twice if he’s Muslim, and also where he got his name.
His mother had no idea where he was the whole time.
Ali Jr is considering suing the US Treasury and Homeland Security over the incident, and may file the lawsuit as a class action. Mancini believes it hints at a larger issue of profiling and discrimination.
The incident occurred just four days after a federal judge halted Donald Trump’s immigration ban.
The ban barred immigrants from seven predominantly Muslim countries from entering the U.S.
US Customs and Border Protections did not comment about individual travelers, but said that ‘all international travelers arriving in the US are subject to CBP inspection’.
