U.S. bars Iraqi-Canadian doctor and his family from traveling to Disney World
Source: Toronto Star
A Mississauga family says a dream trip to Disney World in February turned into a nightmare after they were held by U.S. customs at Pearson airport, denied entry and paraded in public before returning home. Firas Al-Rawi, an emergency room doctor at Toronto General Hospital, said he booked the Family Day holiday trip in early December so his wife and children could join him at a professional conference in Orlando that week. The family had taken numerous trips to the United States by air and car without incident.
“My kids were so excited, and they were counting down the days for the trip,” said Al-Rawi, 48, an Iraqi who immigrated to Canada with his family in 2006 via Qatar, where he and his wife, Asmaa Ahmed, both worked as physicians. They and their children are all citizens who hold Canadian passports.
... On Feb. 13, the family arrived at Pearson International Airport three hours ahead of their 5 p.m. flight. After being fingerprinted and photographed at the check-in counter, Al-Rawi said, they were asked to go for a secondary inspection. ... During the inspection, the family said, their electronics — one iPhone, two MacBooks and three iPads — were confiscated, and they were ordered to provide passwords so officials could unlock the devices.
... A customs supervisor later told the family they were being denied entry to the U.S. and asked them to sign papers to declare they were withdrawing their applications for admission, he said. Al-Rawi refused and asked for a reason. “He said, ‘You are not going to your trip because we have doubts if you are going to return to Canada after the trip,’” said Al-Rawi, who spent more than five years working to earn an Ontario medical licence and restart his stalled practice in Canada.
United States Customs and Border Protection refused to comment on the Al-Rawi incident, but said travellers are responsible for proving their innocence. ... Al-Rawi said American officials have yet to return the seized electronics and the family is concerned about the implications of this action for future travels; their passports now carry U.S. stamps showing that they withdrew their admission applications to the U.S., which is equivalent to the person being denied entry.
Read more: http://www.thestar.com/news/immigration/2015/03/03/disney-vacation-turns-to-nightmare-for-mississauga-family.html