Reuters / Jim Young
The Yemeni mom of a 2-year-old boy on life support in an Oakland hospital is being blocked from coming to the U.S. to say goodbye to her son by Donald Trump’s travel ban, according to the child’s family. Abdullah Hassan was born in Yemen with a rare brain disease. His dad—a U.S. citizen who lives in Stockton, California—brought him to UCSF Benioff Children’s Hospital Oakland for care about five months ago. The boy isn’t expected to live for much longer. The family is preparing to remove Abdullah from life support but they want to give his mother the chance to say goodbye. The U.S. State Department has so far ignored pleas for a waiver to get her into the country, the family told the San Francisco Chronicle. “All she wishes is to hold his hand for the last time,” Abdullah’s father, Ali Hassan, 22, said. “If I could take him off the ventilator and to the airplane, I would take him to her. I would let her see him. But he won’t make it.” Trump introduced his travel ban on majority-Muslim countries shortly after taking office. “It’s really urgent,” said Hassan’s father, Fawzi Hassan. “She’s crying every day, ‘Please help me get to my son.’ We need her to see her son one last time. To hold him for at least a minute. She’s not going to see him forever. If he dies and we bury him without his mom seeing him, that will be a disaster.”