Unbelievably, after being held for hours at the Ft Lauderdale-Hollywood airport and questioned about his religion two weeks ago, Muhammad Ali Jr was detained at another airport today. This time, it was at Reagan National Airport, boarding a domestic flight on his way to Fort Lauderdale.
Spurred by the first ludicrous detainment he endured, Ali had spent yesterday testifying in front of congress about “putting a stop to such blatant discrimination,” according to Miami New Times.
Ali was then turned away from his flight today after being questioned about his date-of-birth, social security number and mother’s name. It wasn’t until he pulled out his passport – which one isn’t supposed to need for a domestic flight – that they allowed him to board his plane.
The family’s lawyer, Chris Mancini, tells New Times that Ali Jr. had been flying around the country using a valid Illinois State ID (not a driver’s license), which expires in 2019. The card had worked fine all month.
Yesterday, Ali Jr. testified about his February detention in front of a United States Senate Democratic Subcommittee. And one day after publicly criticizing Donald Trump and his Muslim travel ban, his ID magically stopped working at Reagan National.
“This was directly in retaliation for what happened,” Mancini says. “I don’t care what they say. Homeland Security needs to explain why, two days ago, he could fly, but all of a sudden two days later, he can’t fly.”
On his way home, he found out he was coincidentally on the same flight as Florida Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz. They snapped a photo together and she tweeted this:
