Lawyer Chris Mancini said Muhammad Ali, Jr., 44, was stopped and questioned by officials at the check-in counter at Reagan National Airport Friday. He was planning on flying from Washington, D.C. to Fort Lauderdale. This happened just a day after Ali told lawmakers he was racially and religiously profiled in February, during a similar incident at Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport. At that time he had just arrived back from a trip to Jamaica with his mother, Khalilah Ali. At the airport he was asked whether he was Muslim. Mancini told the New York Daily News that it was obvious Ali had been “put on a different status” and placed on some kind of watch list after that incident.

Airport TSA officials demanded Ali’s passport

Refusing to accept his State ID, officials said Ali must produce his American passport to be able to board a JetBlue plane. Reportedly the Department of Homeland Security, which covers the TSA, denied that Ali had been detained at the airport. The agency told the Daily News that on arrival at the check-in counter, a call was made to the TSA to confirm Ali’s identity, adding that he was also patted down because of his jewelry. When questioned about the actions of the check-in staff, a TSA spokesman explained that they occasionally have to verify passengers’ identities. However the spokesman added that they work as quickly as possible. In Ali’s case, they said the whole incident took only 11 minutes.

Ali recalls his previous detainment at an airport

The problem reportedly happened after Ali had told lawmakers he had been targeted for his Muslim faith and his race, following U.S.

President Donald Trump’s executive orders on immigration. He was held at the airport for around an hour and a half on February 7. According to Mancini, they feel this is the reason why Ali was detained for a second time on Friday. It turns out Congresswoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-Fla) was on the same flight as Ali on Friday and she said he had been profiled.

Wasserman was pictured on their flight, with the added caption saying that the religious profiling of Ali Muhammad’s son will not make Americans safe. As noted by ABC News, both Ali and his mother, who were born in the U.S., believe they were stopped at the airport due to their Arabic names and the fact that they are Muslims.
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