Ali Vayeghan (L) was helped by the American Civil Liberties Union, including Director of Police Practices Peter Bibring (R), to return to the United States after he was first denied entry under immigration restrictions signed by U.S. President Donald Trump. Photo courtesy of
ACLU of Southern California/Twitter
Feb. 3 (UPI) -- An Iranian man who had been granted a visa to come to the United States but was turned away in the wake of President Donald Trump's executive order restricting travel from several Muslim nations was admitted to the country, becoming the first such immigrant to gain access after federal courts intervened.
Greeted at Los Angeles International Airport on Thursday, Ali Vayeghan's ordeal was put to rest as he praised the United States for allowing him to immigrate there. He greeted his brother and other family members surrounded by a throng of politicians, journalists, his lawyers and many of the protesters who rallied for his and others' admission in the wake of Trump's immigration order.
The reunion was far different from the chaotic scene that played out a week earlier, one that resembled others around the country after Trump's order went into effect.
Vayeghan, 61, arrived at LAX just hours after Trump's executive order was signed Jan. 27. The order restricts immigration from seven predominantly Muslim countries, including Iran, for at least 90 days. Acting on those orders, Customs and Border Protection agents detained Vayeghan at the airport for several hours and his family members said they were given little information about his whereabouts.
Vayeghan's brother, Hussein, happened upon lawyers he had never met from the American Civil Liberties Union who had come to the airport amid the drama unfolding at other ports of entry. Working pro bono on the family's behalf, the ACLU scrambled to obtain a court order securing Vayeghan's release. Federal District Judge Dolly Gee granted an immediate order for the Department of Homeland Security to honor Vayeghan's visa -- but the order came down too late. Vayeghan said Border Patrol agents had already allegedly pressured him to sign documents renouncing his immigration visa and forcibly carried him onto an airplane headed first to Qatar, then back to Iran.
Gee issued a second ruling, ordering the Department of Homeland Security to facilitate Vayeghan's return, agreeing the federal government had violated his Fourth Amendment right to due process. Citing the "irreparable harm" he would face if he were forced to go back to Iran after attempting to immigrate to the United States, she ordered his immediate return.
His arrival marked the first time since the immigration order went into effect that an immigrant from one of the seven Muslim countries named by Trump was admitted to the United States via a court order after initially having been turned away.
Flanked by his brother and speaking in Persian with his niece translating, Vayeghan, a shopkeeper from Tehran, praised the United States and promised he held no ill will, despite the week-long ordeal and some 15,000 miles of air travel to and from the Middle East.
"This is what humanity looks like. This is what human rights looks like. I am shocked, honored and awed," Vayeghan said, through his niece. "Please let them know I'm not mad at anybody. This is the greatest country in the world."
After a brief reunion with his brother in California, Vayeghan was scheduled to move to Indiana, where he will see his son, who is a U.S. citizen, for the first time in 12 years.
