Journalist, broadcaster and engineer Yassmin Abdel-Magied has live-tweeted her deportation from Minneapolis, USA, having arrived in the country to give talks on her experiences of discrimination.
Abdel-Magied, a dual Australian-Sudanese citizen who lives in the UK, tweeted that upon arriving, US immigration had “taken my phone, cancelled my visa and are deporting me”.
Under the US’s ‘travel ban’ enacted by President Trump, visiting citizens of seven Muslim-majority countries, may be restricted from entering the country. While Sudan was included on the original list, it was removed last September, meaning Abdel-Magied shouldn’t have been deported under her dual-citizenship.
Abdel-Magied expressed confusion, as it’s currently unclear why she was deported.
“Guess that tightening of immigrations laws business is working, despite my Australian passport,” she tweeted.
Abdel-Magied noted that it took ‘roughly three hours’ to be sent on a return plane, despite that after a few minutes of examining her case, an immigration officer announced “we’re sending you back!”
https://twitter.com/yassmin_a/status/984222059239755776
There’s a great irony here, given that Abdel-Magied, a practicing Muslim, was in the US to give two talks on discrimination in New York City next week for PEN World Voices Literary Festival.
One was to focus on “fighting online hate” – the other is entitled “The M Word: No Country For Young Muslim Women”, focusing in part on Abdel-Magied’s move away from Australia last year after ongoing media attention and online abuse after an ANZAC Day tweet was deemed insensitive.
According to PEN’s description of the event, Abdel-Magied and Amani Al-Khatahtbeh, whose family left America in 2005 after experiencing Islamaphobia, would “talk about how to survive in cultures that hate them”.
Abdel-Magied confirmed an hour ago that she was on a plane and has been deported.
On Monday, Abdel-Magied again made the headlines of conservative commentators when the ABC announced a six-part iView series called Hijabistas! with Yassmin Abdel-Magied, where she explores Islamic headwear fashion in Australia.
You can follow the full twitter thread here.
https://twitter.com/yassmin_a/status/984213088307212288
Source: Twitter
Image credit: Yassmin Abdel-Magied / Instagram.
