Imran Ahmed is a British resident of the United States and founder of the non-governmental organization Center to Combat Digital Hate
This Friday, a judge suspended the deportation process of Imran Ahmed, a British resident in the United States and founder of the non-governmental organization (NGO) Center to Combat Digital Hate, one of five Europeans sanctioned by the North American government.
The sanctions announced this week, due to the alleged role of the five targeted in promoting censorship of North American digital platforms, include barring entry into the United States.
After the NGO’s executive director’s legal team filed a lawsuit against Donald Trump’s government, Judge Vernon S. Broderick, from the Southern District of New York, ruled in favor of Ahmed, who could be deported and separated from his wife and son, both US citizens.
According to court documents analyzed by the BBC and cited this Friday by the EuropaPress agency, the judge ruled that Ahmed, who currently resides in New York with his family, cannot be detained and subsequently deported until his case is analyzed by the North American judicial system.
In addition to Ahmed, Trump this week imposed visa restrictions on four other European citizens: former European Union Commissioner for the Internal Market, Thierry Breton; Clare Melford, from the Global Disinformation Index; and Anna-Lena von Hodenberg and Josephine Ballon, both from HateAid.
The State Department considers that “these radical activists and politicized NGOs promoted repressive censorship measures by foreign states directed against Americans.”
North American diplomacy determined that its presence in the United States “has potentially serious consequences for the country’s foreign policy”.
The sanctions against European citizens, especially against Breton, provoked condemnation from the European Commission and countries such as France and Spain, which stressed that their role is to represent “civil society organizations that fight against disinformation and hate speech”.
