Married doctors from Iran on their way home to Portland, and a mother and her infant daughter back from Syria, were detained for about two hours Saturday by border patrol officers at Denver International Airport after a flight from Frankfurt, Germany, then quietly released to continue their travels amid a larger protest in the heart of the airport terminal against the policies that stopped them.
Agents stopped to question Dr. Abolfazi Mehdizadeh Kashi, 62, and his wife, Dr. Shahla Chaichian, 61, shortly after disembarking from a Lufthansa flight from Frankfurt. They were allowed to continue traveling after about two hours, attorneys who spoke with them said.
“There is no reason for two respectable surgeons, married, in their 60s, to be detained,” said Zahra Kashi, Abolfazi’s 53-year-old sister. “They’ve done nothing and are simply coming home.”
Also stopped and questioned was a Syrian woman and her daughter, whose names were not provided. They were questioned by border patrol officers and allowed to continue travelling, said Camila Palmer, an immigration attorney among about 15 others who came to the airport concerned legal residents of the United States would be detained. The woman had been in Syria helping her mother during a difficult surgery, Palmer said.
Palmer said the couple and mother told them they had been treated with respect and were only asked about their travel plans and to present their documents. She said they were not questioned about their religion or beliefs.
“We are here to protect the freedoms of these individuals who are legally in the US and have the right to travel,” Palmer said.
In the backdrop was a protest in the heart of the DIA terminal, where a fountain once stood, complaining of a presidential order issued earlier in the day in which citizens from specific countries were to be detained and undergo “vigorous vetting.”
“This is our Constitution, this is our country,” said Amal Kassir, 21, a University of Colorado at Denver graduate who led about 200 people in the protest.
“We are mobilizing today because it is unlawful for the United States and President Donald Trump to illegally detain American citizens,” Kassir said in an earlier press statement. “Today, we come in peace to protect the First Amendment rights of our Muslim, refugee and immigrant brothers and sisters.”
With signs ranging from proclamantions of support for varied religions to self-identifying slogans of creed and race, all in support of Muslim travelers, the protesters began chanting a welcome-home message to a fictitious traveler named Omar after police warned them to disperse.
Police and airport officials told the protesters that First Amendment protests, as well as blocking any areas of travel, could lead to their arrest since any formal demonstration required a permit. That could be obtained in seven days.
“We simply don’t want anyone to be arrested,” said George Hypolie, an assistant city attorney at DIA.
About two dozen police stood on the edges of the demonstration, most of them scanning their own cell phones or photographing the protesters. An FBI agent quietly stood by, listening intently to an ear piece in his left ear.
The many of the protesters dispersed after 6 p.m.
Attorneys with the American Immigrantion Lawyers Association had banded together to be at DIA in case of any detentions. Unsure about how they might actually find out, they quizzed workers at the exit for international travelers, as well as crew members of any flight that had landed.
Members of a British Airways team appeared helpful and said they’d not had any issues, but a crew from an earlier Lufthansa flight simply shook their heads and walked off without comment. Later, a Lufthansa crew from a different flight said they had to leave one of their flight attendants behind in Germany because of the new American policy.
The attorneys, each wearing a lapel sticker with “legal monitor” written on it, said they were promised a chance to speak with border patrol officers, but one never appeared. Two attorneys, at the request of Zahra Kashi, filed paperwork saying they represented the Iranian couple.
The doctors have been legal residents of the US since 2012, Zahra told The Post.
“They were treated very kinds and respectfully,” Zahra said. “My family was amazed at the respectful treatment.”