Engineer, author, presenter, activist and former Queensland Young Australian of the Year, Yassmin Abdel-Magied has tweeted that she’s been refused entry to the United States. Abdel-Magied says that she was only in Minneapolis for three hours before she was denied entry.
“They’ve taken my phone, cancelled my visa and are deporting me,” she said. It is unclear where she was being sent back to.
The activist was in the U.S. ahead of speaking engagements in New York, but said that border agents decided to deport her almost immediately after reviewing her profile.
“Will follow up on messages once I understand what’s going on,” she tweeted.
In further tweets, Abdel-Magied explained that officials had withheld her passport until she was in another country:
“Well, guess that tightening of immigration laws business is working, despite my Australian passport. We’re taking off now. What a time.”
Mamamia has contacted Ms Abdel-Magied for comment.
According to The Sydney Morning Herald, the public figure was due to appear at two events for the Pen America World Voices Festival. The first talk being “The M Word: No Country For Young Muslim Women”. The second event is a panel discussion about online bullying and abuse of female media identities.
Abdel-Magied made the decision to move to London last year after an outcry from the Australian public in response to her infamous 2017 Anzac Day post, “Lest We Forget (Manus, Nauru, Syria, Palestine …)”.
She was the subject of abuse, threats and torment, until she finally left Australia.
Listen to MMOL discuss Yassmin Abdel Magied’s ANZAC Day post.
Undoubtedly, Abdel-Magied has been through worse than her current situation. With no choice but to accept her deportation, she tweeted:
“Funniest thing is that throughout this whole ordeal all I am thinking about is what a good story this would make. We all have ways of dealing with situations.”
Last year, Abdel-Magied wrote in Teen Vogue that as a “model minority”, she hoped she could help to shift perceptions and dismantle prejudices.
“I thought if I were good enough, my example would make people see that their assumptions about Muslims and people of colour were wrong. Once they got to know me, they would change their behaviour and fix their biases, I thought,” Abdel-Magied wrote in the op-ed.
“The reality is, none of the positive work that I did over the past 10 years mattered. All that mattered was that I was a young Muslim woman of colour who had stepped out of line.”
Top Comments
Didn't the well loved children's author Mem Fox also almost get deported after being interrogated for hours in US immigration a short while ago? The US seems crazy strict on their visa policies for public speakers, not sure if this has anything to do with her religion/colour.
They're crazy strict with everyone. You don't get a warm, fuzzy welcome by immigration staff when you enter the US, even when you are whiter-than-white. I travel there for conferences regularly, and have come to see you just have to expect it will be difficult and sometimes confrontational. But the onus is on the traveller to ensure they have the correct entry documents.
She isn’t banned from the US, she is free to reapply. She was refused entry because she had an incorrect visa, given she would be paid to appear at the events. Own goal, nothing more, nothing less and yes we know about her views, taxpayers in this awful country have provided her with a big platform via the ABC and other bodies.