Atlanta: A CNN editor and producer has launched legal action after allegedly being wrongly detained at Atlanta's airport because of US President Donald Trump's ban on entry for citizens of seven Muslim-majority countries.
Mohammed Abdullah Tawfeeq, who has a green card, says in a federal lawsuit filed in the US on Monday that he was improperly detained and subjected to additional screening when he arrived from Iraq on Sunday.
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Tawfeeq, who has worked for CNN since 2004, arrived in the US as a refugee and became a legal permanent resident in June 2013, the suit says.
He was one of 721 people detained or denied entry to the country after the surprise order was signed by Trump on Friday.
Trump posted on Twitter that only 109 people were detained or denied entry into the United States after his order, but during a news briefing at the Customs and Border Protection agency's headquarters on Tuesday, officials said that 721 people had been denied boarding US-bound flights after it began enforcing the travel ban.
The agency said it processed waivers for 1060 green card holders, as well as an additional 75 waivers for immigrant visa and non-immigrant visa holders.
Homeland Security officials said the White House was referring to the number of people who were either detained or denied boarding during the initial hours after the travel ban was signed, a total based on preliminary calculations.
The officials also disclosed that 872 refugees were granted waivers to enter the country, despite Trump's executive order freezing resettlement. Customs officials said the waivers were granted because the refugees were "ready to travel". They had already been vetted by the government, they said. It is not known how many people were deported or if detentions continue.
![CNN journalist Mohammed Tawfeeq was allegedly detained as a result of Donald Trump travel ban.](/web/20170204151944im_/http://www.smh.com.au/content/dam/images/g/u/3/r/p/k/image.related.articleLeadwide.620x349.gu3ox1.png/1486035741793.jpg)
Tawfeeq travelled to Iraq in mid-October for work and then spent time with family there after completing his assignment.
When he returned to Atlanta, a Customs and Border Protection officer "notified him that he could be refused entry under the President's recently-signed executive order," the lawsuit says.
![Mansour Kenereh, centre, reunites with family members in the international arrivals lobby at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta ...](/web/20170204151944im_/http://www.smh.com.au/content/dam/images/g/u/3/r/r/l/image.related.articleLeadwide.620x349.gu3ox1.png/1486035741793.jpg)
After being questioned over his stay in Iraq he was sent for secondary inspection, where he was told officials needed to "seek an email" concerning whether he would be allowed into the US, the lawsuit says.
After about 30 minutes, Tawfeeq was asked whether he'd been fingerprinted, and he said he'd been repeatedly fingerprinted by the US government while embedded with the US military in Iraq, the lawsuit says.
![A demonstrator holds a sign at Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport in Atlanta during a demonstration to denounce ...](/web/20170204151944im_/http://www.smh.com.au/content/dam/images/g/u/3/r/t/4/image.related.articleLeadwide.620x349.gu3ox1.png/1486035741793.jpg)
Eventually he was granted entry but officials didn't give any explanation for their decision and didn't give him any entry documents or stamp his passport.
Homeland Security spokeswoman Gillian Christensen said the agency, which includes Customs and Border Protection, does not comment on pending litigation.
![Demonstrators hold signs at Atlanta's airport to denounce President Donald Trump's executive order.](/web/20170204151944im_/http://www.smh.com.au/content/dam/images/g/u/3/r/t/b/image.related.articleLeadwide.620x349.gu3ox1.png/1486035741793.jpg)
Immigration proponents and lawyers representing people stuck at airports because of the ban say they were unable to speak to anyone at Customs and Border Protection or at the headquarters of Homeland Security to clarify the status of incoming passengers.
The State Department didn't immediately respond.
The lawsuit claims that applying the order to legal permanent residents violates federal law and the US Constitution and asks a judge to rule that the officials' actions were unlawful and to prohibit the president's order from being applied to returning legal permanent residents.
AP, New York Times
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