LOS ANGELES >> An Iranian citizen with a U.S. student visa, who was denied entry at Los Angeles International Airport last month under President Donald Trump’s travel ban, returned to the airport Sunday amid a throng of reporters, friends and civil rights attorneys.
Sara Yarjani, a graduate student at the California Institute for Human Science in Encinitas, is returning two days after a federal judge in Seattle issued an immediate and temporary halt nationwide against the immigration order involving nationals from seven predominantly Muslim countries, including Iran.
• Video: Grad student denied entry during travel ban arrives at LAX
“I’m grateful for everyone that’s been so supportive since I was detained here for 23 hours last week or so,” a tearful Yarjani, 35, said after hugging her sister. “There’s been so many messages and calls and emails and everything from people I don’t even know of support and love and I am so grateful.”
Yarjani, who was born in Australia and has lived in Europe for most of the last two decades, said she was especially grateful for the attorneys that did all they could to try to keep her from being sent back and people that sent support to her family during this difficult time.
“I’m grateful because to me, that’s America and I love that,” she said.
Yarjani was removed nearly two hours after a federal court in New York ordered that the government stop all removals immediately, according to the American Civil Liberties Union.
“CBP officers removed Yarjani in violation of the court order, despite the fact that Yarjani pled that it was now against the law to put her on the plane,” the ACLU said in a statement.
Yarjani was detained by U.S. Customs and Border Protection and then forced to leave the U.S. after arriving at LAX from Vienna, Austria on Jan. 27, according to the ACLU.
More to come.
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