Media Contact

Marcus Benigno, 323.384.1819, communications@aclusocal.org

February 5, 2017

LOS ANGELES – Sara Yarjani, an Iranian citizen with a U.S. student visa, is scheduled to arrive today at the Los Angeles International Airport at approximately 12:45 p.m. PT on Air Berlin Flight 7430.

Yarjani's return to the U.S. comes two days after a federal judge in Seattle granted a nationwide temporary restraining order against the president's Muslim ban.

On Friday, January 27, Yarjani arrived at LAX from Vienna, Austria, only to be detained for nearly 23 hours by U.S. Customs and Border Protection and be forcibly removed from the country. The president’s executive order banning travel from Iran and six other Muslim-majority countries had gone into effect hours before Yarjani arrived. 

She was removed nearly two hours after a federal court in New York ordered that the government halt all removals immediately. CBP officers removed Yarjani in violation of the court order, despite the fact that Yarjani pled that it was now against the law to put her on the plane. Volunteer attorneys at LAX, as well as U.S. Representatives Judy Chu and Nanette Diaz Barragán, sought to advocate on her behalf.

Yarjani, who will be arriving at Tom Bradley International Terminal, will be greeted by her sister, as well as civil rights and immigration advocates who have worked with her over the past week. 

Yarjani is graduate student at the California Institute for Human Science in Encinitas, California.

WHAT: Media availability 

WHO: Sara Yarjani, advocates from the ACLU of Southern California and Public Counsel, volunteer attorneys

WHEN: Sunday, February 5 at 12:45 p.m. PT

WHERE: Tom Bradley International Terminal - Arrivals, Los Angeles International Airport