Five-year-old boy handcuffed at Dulles airport: US

White House says boy could have posed security threat

WASHINGTON: The White House has said a five-year-old boy was detained for more than four hours and reportedly handcuffed at the Dulles International Airport because he posed a “security risk”.

The boy, a US citizen with an Iranian mother, was one of more than 100 people detained following President Donald Trump’s immigration order.

In a press briefing, President Trump’s press secretary Sean Spicer was unrepentant about the incident, reported foreign media. “To assume that just because of someone’s age and gender that they don’t pose a threat, would be misguided and wrong.”

Footage shows the boy's mother waiting anxiously at the airport in Washington, DC, before being reunited with her son, who was reportedly flown into the airport with another family. She then sang “happy birthday” to the little boy in English as she hugged him and covered him with kisses as onlookers cheered.

The mother declined to speak with reporters, but Senator Chris Van Hollen said the little boy was a US citizen who lives with his mother in Maryland. Hollen, a Democrat, said it was “outrageous” that the boy had been held for so long and that his mother had given the airport advance notice of his arrival.