Having been 'black-balled' by the Trump, it appears CNN is going all-in on alienating itself from The White House as The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reports a CNN editor and producer who was detained Sunday at Atlanta's airport has filed a federal lawsuit challenging President Donald Trump's immigration order.
Mohammed Tawfeeq is an Iraqi national who has been a permanent legal resident of the United States since 2013. As an editor, Tawfeeq frequently travels to the Middle East as part of his reporting duties, the lawsuit states. Tawfeeq was detained Sunday at Atlanta’s Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport, where he was subjected to additional screening that delayed his entry into the United States.
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reports that the lawsuit states...
Defendants used Trump's recent executive order to unlawfully detain Tawfeeq, who is a legal permanent resident of the U.S., an immigrant from Iraq, an award-winning Middle Eastern journalist and the current manager of CNN's International Desk.
The lawsuit, filed against the U.S. departments of Homeland Security, Customs and Border Protection and other federal agencies, seeks a declaration of Tawfeeq’s rights under the Immigration and Nationality Act.
The suits states that applying this executive order to lawful permanent residents or green card holders returning after a brief trip abroad violates the Immigration and Nationality Act, the Administrative Procedure Act and the U.S. Constitution.
“The executive order has greatly increased the uncertainty involved in current and future international travel for returning lawful permanent residents like Mr. Tawfeeq,” the lawsuit states.
What is perhaps most interesting is that since his detention on Sunday, The White House has cleared up any confusion about the status of green card holders...
A senior Department of Homeland Security official told CNN that no legal green card holders have been denied entry, but Trump's order has made it more difficult to enter the United States.
Two days since the order has been signed, airlines have begun instructing travelers that permanent green card holders are allowed to travel to the United States.
The International Air Transport Association told airlines on Sunday that the Custom and Border Patrol instructed them that "lawful permanent residents of the United States (green card holders) were out of scope of the (executive order)," according to an email obtained by CNN.
So his suit is about his "uncertainty" (and 5 minutes of fame) and not in fact about the actual law itself?