US keeps Disneyland-bound British Muslim family out of the country

Ever since Donald Trump called for a “total and complete” ban on Muslims entering the United States, many people have decried the idea of excluding people from the country just because of their religion. Would such a policy, some wondered, be constitutional? Would it be American? Would it be decent?

Now, a British Muslim family headed to Disneyland has been prevented from traveling to the United States by the Department of Homeland Security. The Guardian reported that a family of 11, headed to the California resort from Britain’s Gatwick Airport, was unable “to board the plane even though they had been granted travel authorization online ahead of their planned 15 December flight.”

Many questions about the report remained unanswered.

Was every member of the Muslim family a British citizen? Why were they unable to come to the United States? Was some member of the family on a “no-fly” list? The Guardian report didn’t say, and neither did the U.S government.

In a telephone call with The Washington Post, a spokesman for the U.S. Embassy in London confirmed that the family was prevented from leaving Britain on the U.S.-bound flight but offered no further details.

A State Department official referred The Post to the U.S. Department of Homeland Security for specific information on the case. DHS was not immediately available for comment.

The Guardian identified one of the British travelers as Mohammad Tariq Mahmood, who said he was headed to Disneyland with his brother and nine of their children.

The group, according to the Guardian, was “about to embark on a dream holiday for which they had saved for months, were approached by officials from US homeland security as they queued in the departure lounge and told their authorisation to travel had been canceled, without further explanation.”

“We were devastated,” Mahmood told the British TV station ITV. “We’d planned this trip for two months - the kids were excited - and all of a sudden some person just comes and says ‘you’re not allowed to board the plane,' with no explanation.”

“We were alienated,” he added, “the way we were just taken out the room.”

Mahmood said the children were “devastated” and had “tears in their eyes.”

In an interview with the BBC, Mahmood said he was taken aside by a British border control official just before his family was due to board the flight - and that the children knew almost instantly what was happening.

“We were the only family that were Asian, Muslim appearance. It was embarrassing that we were the only family that were taken out,” he said. “When they saw me shaking my head, the younger ones started crying. They knew straight away.”

No American officials told them why they weren’t being allowed to enter the United States, Mahmood told the Guardian, but he said the reason was “obvious.”

“It’s because of the attacks on America - they think every Muslim poses a threat,” he told the newspaper.

Less than two weeks before the family was scheduled to come to California, 14 people were killed at a social services center in San Bernardino - about 50 miles from Disneyland - by a Muslim couple that investigators say were inspired at least in part by the Islamic State terrorist group.

According to ITV News, no one in Mahmood’s family has ever been associated with any terrorist organization.

The story has caused great controversy - the family’s cause has been taken up by British MP Stella Creasy, who represents the part of northeast London where the family lives.

“Online and offline discussions reverberate with the growing fear that UK Muslims are being ‘trumped’ - that widespread condemnation of Donald Trump’s call for no Muslim to be allowed into America contrasts with what is going on in practice,” Creasy wrote for the Guardian.

Creasy wrote on Facebook that just last week “parliamentarians were united in agreement that Trump’s views were abhorrent.”

“Now we should do more than shrug our shoulders at secretive American security policies that leave our constituents in such limbo,” she wrote.

In an interview with The Post, Creasy said she had gone public with the case because she had spent a week trying to get answers from the U.S. Embassy and had “hit a brick wall.”

As of late Wednesday afternoon, she said she still had not received any substantive responses from either the British or American governments.

Creasy said that since she publicized the Mahmood family’s case, others have come forward with similar stories of having been blocked from boarding U.S.-bound flights - including, she said, a U.K. government civil servant.

“Nobody is suggesting that American officials shouldn’t be able to manage who comes into their country,” she said. “But this is happening on U.K. soil, and there is a growing concern that it is the religion of these people that is the issue.”

Creasy said she wrote British Prime Minister David Cameron about the case - and the Guardian reported that he will respond “in due course.” Cameron has condemned Trump’s views of Muslims in the past.

“I think his remarks are divisive, stupid and wrong,” Cameron said of the Republican presidential candidate earlier this month, “and I think if he came to visit our country I think he’d unite us all against him.”

The area that Creasy represents, Walthamstow, is one of the most diverse in London, with large immigrant communities. Its reputation has been tarnished in recent years by the presence of Islamist extremists who have made the neighborhood their home base. Among them is Anjem Choudary, a regular television commentator who has led a succession of now-banned organizations and who faces charges of encouraging support for the Islamic State.

Community leaders in Walthamstow said Wednesday that Mohammed Tariq Mahmood owns a popular area gym, and is a fixture of the neighborhood.

“He’s a good businessman. He’s been in the area for years,” said Mike Jervis, who helps to run a local charity for at-risk youth.

British immigration minister James Brokenshire told the BBC that the matter was for U.S. authorities to settle, though he said the British government would look into it.

“It is for countries to look carefully at this time of heightened security at the steps that they do have in place to assure their homeland security,” he said, “but obviously we will look into the points that have been flagged and respond accordingly.”

The Guardian also cited the experience of Ajmal Mansoor, a well-known British imam who said he was prevented from flying to the United States on Dec. 17, when he was told his visa was revoked.

“I am baffled, annoyed and angry,” Mansoor wrote in a Facebook post. “USA has the right to issue and revoke visa - I fully understand that. However not forwarding any reasons infuriates ordinary people.

“It does not win the hearts and minds of people, it turns them off. I am amazed how irrational these processes are but does USA care about what you and I think? I don’t think so!”

A State Department official told the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee last week that the United States has revoked more than 122,000 visas since 2001, including about 9,500 that were pulled due to terrorism concerns.

In remarks prepared for the committee, Michele Thoren Bond, assistant secretary for the agency’s Bureau of Consular Affairs, said the State Department has “broad and flexible authority to revoke visas” and will use its authority “to protect our borders.”

“Almost every day, we receive requests to review and, if warranted, revoke any outstanding visas for aliens for whom new derogatory information has been discovered since the visa was issued,” she told the committee last week. “In those circumstances, the department can and does use its authority to revoke the visa immediately, and thus prevent boarding.”

Officials can be alerted to new information at any time, Bond said, noting that security reviews continue after visas have been issued.

“Because individuals’ circumstances change over time, and people who once posed no threat to the United States can become threats, continuous vetting and revocation are important tools,” she said. “We use our authority to revoke a visa immediately in circumstances where we believe there is an immediate threat. At the same time, we believe it is important not to act unilaterally, but to coordinate expeditiously with our national security partners in order to avoid possibly disrupting important investigations.”

Bond, however, did not elaborate on potential reasons why visas may be revoked.

“America is the country of the free and the brave, that’s what we’ve been told,” Mansoor told th BBC, “but it looks like it’s stooped down to paranoia and narrow-mindedness. That’s unfortunate. It looks like Donald Trump and his followers - the maniacs, I call them - are winning the day.”

Mansoor wrote on Facebook on Monday that he had been invited to a meeting that day at the U.S. embassy “to clear up the visa mess they created.”

“It was an interesting meeting to say the least,” he wrote.

This story was originally published December 23, 2015 at 12:09 PM with the headline "US keeps Disneyland-bound British Muslim family out of the country."