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Muhammad Ali's son detained at airport again

By Cox Media Group National Content Desk and Bob D Angelo

Muhammad Ali Jr. (left), son of boxing legend Muhammad Ali, and his mother Khalilah Camacho-Ali participate in a forum titled "Ali v. Trump: The Fight for American Values" about immigration enforcement.

By Cox Media Group National Content Desk and Bob D Angelo

WASHINGTON, D.C. — For the second time in five weeks, Muhammad Ali Jr. was detained before being allowed to board a flight, Fox News reported.

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The son of the former heavyweight champion was stopped and questioned at a Washington airport on Friday before being allowed to board his flight to Fort Lauderdale, a lawyer for Ali. Jr. said.

Ali had traveled to Washington on Wednesday, without incident, to speak with members of a congressional subcommittee on border security about a previous detention, Fox News reported. Ali and his mother, Khalilah Camacho Ali, had been detained at the Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport after returning from Jamaica on Feb. 7.
Attorney Chris Mancini said Ali was detained for 20 minutes at Reagan National Airport after attempting to board a JetBlue Airways flight to Florida on Friday. Mancini said Ali spoke to Department of Homeland Security officials by telephone and showed his driver's license and passport before being allowed to board.
Ali, 44, was asked his date of birth, where he was born and his Social Security number, Mancini told the New York Times. After answering the questions, he was told that his Illinois-issued identification card, which expires in 2019 but is not a driver’s license, was invalid for flying.
“The same state ID from Illinois that he traveled to Washington on was rejected,” Mancini said in an interview with the Times on Friday night. Ali then produced his United States passport, which was accepted, and went through security and boarded the flight with his mother and Mancini.
"None of this was happening Wednesday," Mancini said in a telephone interview with Fox News. "Going to Washington obviously opened up a can of worms at DHS."
A spokeswoman for the Transportation Security Administration acknowledged the agency confirmed Ali's identity before he boarded his plane, ABC News reported.
Spokeswoman Lisa Farbstein said Ali also was patted down because his jewelry set off a checkpoint scanner alarm.
Democratic Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz was on the same flight as Ali. Schultz tweeted a photo with Ali, saying that "religiously profiling son of 'The Greatest' will not make us safe."

Cox Media Group

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