CALIFORNIA – Abdullah Hassan, the two-year-old who battled a degenerative brain disease and his mother sued the Trump administration to visit him in the hospital in the US, was buried on Saturday, December 29.
“We are heartbroken. We had to say goodbye to our baby, the light of our lives,” Ali Hassan, the boy’s father, who is also an American citizen, said in a statement issued by CAIR Sacramento Valley.
The Hassan family, including Abdullah’s mother, Shaima Swileh, had been living in Cairo, where the couple moved following the outbreak of war in Yemen in 2016.
They had been unable to move to California because Shaima, a Yemeni national, was turned down for a visa under the Trump administration’s 2017 travel ban.
Dearest Abdullah, you will never be forgotten. We belong to God and to Him we shall return. https://t.co/ZlqIihKykv #ForAbdullah
— CAIR-Sacramento Valley (@CAIRSacramento) December 29, 2018
After Abdullah was diagnosed with a degenerative brain condition, Ali decided to take his son for treatment to California in October.
But, without a visa, Shaima Swileh was forced to stay behind. Swileh finally received a visa waiver from the State Department on the morning of Dec. 18
“Ali and Shaima are in our thoughts and prayers as they mourn the loss of dear Abdullah,” CAIR-SV Civil Rights Attorney Saad Sweilem, who represents the family, said in a statement.
“With their courage, this family has inspired our nation to confront the realities of Donald Trump’s Muslim Ban. In his short life, Abdullah has been a guiding light for all of us in the fight against xenophobia and family separation.”