Yemeni mom overcomes travel ban to finally hold dying son
SAN FRANCISCO — A Yemeni mother cradled her 2-year-old son in her lap, pressing her face close to his and clasping his hand as a series of tubes kept his small body alive.
Shaima Swileh touched the boy for the first time since winning a more than yearlong legal battle to overcome the Trump administration’s travel ban and enter the U.S. to say goodbye to her dying child.
A photograph released late Wednesday by the Council on American-Islamic Relations shows Swileh holding her son Abdullah at a hospital in Oakland where he is on life support.
Swileh arrived that night at San Francisco International Airport after the advocacy group sued the U.S. to grant her waiver from the travel ban. She got it after a 17-month fight.