Does the Obama administration already have a partial, secret Trump-like policy?
This sounds very bad, unless the family are provided with a reasonable explanation by the US authorities: they get their visas weeks before their holiday, spend over £11,000 booking it, then just before the departure gate they are told by US officials they can't fly to the US (according to the father) "because they are Muslim".
Similarly, an imam who "has preached against extremism" was recently told he couldn't fly to the US in similar circumstances, again without explanation.
British Muslim father barred from taking his children on £11,000 Disneyland trip by U.S. officials reveals they were taken out of the queue at the departure gate - and were even ordered to return their duty free
Mohammad Tariq Mahmood tried to travel from Gatwick Airport to LA
He, his brother and nine children were stopped on the orders of the US
Mr Mahmood says the family were barred 'because we are Muslim'
David Cameron says he'll examine the case after it was raised by an MP
A British father has told how his family's planned holiday to the U.S. was ruined when they were prevented from flying 'because they are Muslim'.
Mohammad Tariq Mahmood, 41, his brother and their children, aged between eight and 19, said they were stopped at the departure gate at Gatwick airport and told their visas to the US had been revoked.
They say were given no explanation why their visas, organised six weeks before the flight, were suddenly cancelled at the last minute and have now lost the more than £11,000 they had saved for the holiday.
The ban comes after Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump called for all Muslims to be stopped from entering the US.
Mr Mahmood, who is from north-west London, has called on David Cameron to demand an explanation from the American authorities and is seeking a refund for the cost of the airline tickets to Los Angeles.
Gym owner Mr Mahmood said they were going to a reunion with his family in California after 15 years and hoped to visit Disneyland and other tourist sites.
The party were forced to hand back their duty free items with the children in tears.
He said: 'We had been planning the trip for four to five months and my kids had countdowns on their phones.
'It had been about ten or fifteen years since we'd had the whole family together.
'My kids were really looking forward to seeing their cousins, they live in California. We'd planned skydiving and a desert safari and the kids were all keeping up and talking about it through social media. They'd made a lot of plans.
'Our flight was on Tuesday last week and it was meant to leave at 12:35 in the afternoon. We'd checked in and we'd bought things in duty free.
'We were waiting in the queue at the gate and we were very close to getting on the plane.
'Then an announcement said they wanted to speak to Mr Mohammad. There was no one else of Asian origin or who looked Muslim so I knew it was me.
'A gentleman said he was from British Border Control and he had a border control jacket on.
'He said there was something wrong with my ESTA [Electronic System for Travel Authorization] and that I wouldn't be able to board. I had made sure we had our ESTAs cleared six weeks ago so I couldn't think what could be wrong.
'I asked why we weren't allowed to board. I had to be persistent. He wouldn't tell me why and said he didn't know at first.
'He finally said they had had a call from Washington DC from homeland security and that I wasn't allowed to board. He wouldn't tell me anything more.'
....
It comes after an imam who says he has preached against extremism and has previously travelled to the US was also prevented from boarding a flight in similar circumstances.
Ajmal Masroor, who is also from north London, told the BBC: 'America is the country of the free and the brave, that's what we're told, but it looks like it has stooped down to paranoia and narrow-mindedness and that's unfortunate.'
Does the Obama administration already have a partial, secret Trump-like policy?
