Washington: Muhammad Ali Jr has been detained and questioned at a Washington airport before being allowed to board a flight to Fort Lauderdale after meeting members of congress to discuss a similar incident last month.
Ali and his mother, Khalilah Camacho Ali, were stopped at the Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport after returning from Jamaica on February 7.
They flew to Washington on Wednesday without incident to speak to members of a congressional subcommittee on border security about that experience.
But attorney Chris Mancini says when Ali attempted to board a JetBlue Airways flight home to Florida on Friday he was detained for 20 minutes.
Mancini says Ali spoke to Department of Homeland Security officials by telephone and showed his driver's license and passport before he was allowed to board.
"None of this was happening Wednesday," Mancini said in a telephone interview as he was travelling with the Alis.
"Going to Washington obviously opened up a can of worms at DHS."
A spokeswoman for the Transportation Security Administration acknowledged that the agency confirmed Ali's identity before he boarded the plane.
Spokeswoman Lisa Farbstein said Ali was also patted down because his jewellery set off a checkpoint scanner alarm.
Florida Democratic Congresswoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz, who was on the same flight, tweeted a photo with Ali after he was allowed to board and wrote: "On way home on DOMESTIC FLIGHT Muhammad Ali Jr. detained AGAIN ... Religiously profiling son of 'The Greatest' will not make us safe."
On way home on DOMESTIC FLIGHT Muhammad Ali Jr. detained AGAIN by @DHSgov. Religiously profiling son of 'The Greatest' will not make us safe pic.twitter.com/KO3IVnRFax
— D Wasserman Schultz (@DWStweets) March 10, 2017
The mother and son, both born in the United States, have said in interviews that they believe they have been stopped because they are Muslim with Arabic names.
AP