Muslim mayor blocked from White House decries "watch list"

[Omaha Steve]

Source: AP

By BRUCE SHIPKOWSKI

A New Jersey mayor who was blocked from attending a White House celebration this week with President Joe Biden to belatedly mark the end of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan called Tuesday for the administration to end the federal “watch list” that he said illegally targets Muslims and others.

During a news conference held Tuesday in South Plainfield by the New Jersey chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR-NJ), Prospect Park Mayor Mohamed Khairullah and several other speakers condemned the list as illegal, discriminatory and unconstitutional. They also called on the U.S. Secret Service and other federal agencies to stop using and distributing the list, which the group says has more than 1.5 million names, a majority of which are “Arab or Muslim sounding.”

CAIR has called on the Biden administration to cease the FBI’s dissemination of information from what is known as a Terrorist Screening Data Set that includes hundreds of thousands of individuals. The group informed Khairullah that a person with his name and birthdate was in a dataset that CAIR attorneys obtained in 2019.

Shortly before he was set to arrive at the White House for the Eid-al-Fitr celebration on Monday, Khairullah said he received a call from the White House stating that he had not been cleared for entry by the Secret Service and could not attend the celebration where Biden delivered remarks to hundreds of guests.


Read more: https://apnews.com/article/new-jersey-mayor-white-house-eid-1bbb16162803d706be52af3ac63dd2ce

[cstanleytech]

1. I would say its the the near impossibility to appeal being placed on a watchlist

that is the real problem.

[AZLD4Candidate]

2. Government agency with limited oversight and no accountability have always been problems

Ask anyone trying to get a green card or any foreigner entering the country. You can be denied for any reason or no reason, no appeal granted.

It all comes down to Cold War era fascism in this country.

[cstanleytech]

3. Thats why there needs to be a reasonable method to make appeals.

[AZLD4Candidate]

4. My wife's green card has been denied four times with no reason.

Good luck.

The owners of the country don't want government accountability. Look at my sig at the bottom. That's why it will never happen.

[lollygag]

5. Why is he on it?

?

[RussBLib]

6. his name was on the Watch List

from the article, "The group informed Khairullah that a person with his name and birthdate was in a dataset that CAIR attorneys obtained in 2019."

Can't wait to see right-wingers defend Muslims.