11th March, 2017
Apparently not, as the son of the late iconic boxer claims he was once again detained on Friday along with his mother, Khalilah Camacho-Ali. This time at Reagan Airport outside Washington D.C. after he was invited to speak at a forum on Thursday to discuss the recent immigration policy set forth by President Donald Trump.
Ali’s lawyer, Chris Mancini said his client was trying to board a Jet Blue plane back to Fort Lauderdale when he was stopped for 20 to 25 minutes by the Department of Homeland Security. Mancini told the New York Times, the DHS rejected his ID and continued to ask where he was from until finally letting him board his flight back home.
“None of this was happening Wednesday,” Mancini said. “Going to Washington obviously opened up a can of worms at DHS.”
Mancini told the New York Daily News that the son of the former heavyweight champion has “quite obviously now been put on a different status”, hinting Ali Jr. could be on a watch list at all the airports.
The Transportation Security released a statement giving their explanation in regards to the incident.
“Upon arriving at the airline check-in counter, a call was made to confirm Mr. Ali’s identity with TSA officials. When Mr. Ali arrived at the checkpoint, his large jewelry alarmed the checkpoint scanner,” the TSA said in the statement. “He received a targeted pat-down in the area of his jewelry to clear the alarm and was cleared to catch his flight.”