Immigration officials under President Donald Trump’s first administration sought to undermine singer-songwriter Neil Young’s citizenship application, according to Young’s wife Daryl Hannah.
Young, a Canadian citizen by birth, was going through the process of becoming a citizen in 2019, and at the time, he wrote about the arduous process. He said his past marijuana use was heavily focused on by the interviewers.
Hannah condemned what Young had to go through in a recent interview with BBC.
‘They tried to every trick in the book to mess him up, and made him keep coming back to be re-interviewed and re-interviewed. It’s ridiculous [because] he’s been living in America and paying taxes here since he was in his 20s,’ Hannah said.
Young was born in Toronto on November 12, 1945. He entered the United States in 1966 without a visa before acquiring a green card in 1970.
Young gained his US citizenship in January 2020, posting on Instagram a picture of himself giving an army salute next to the American flag. He also made his political affiliations clear by standing in front of a sign that read, ‘Democrats register to vote here.’
Hannah’s revelation about Young’s struggles becoming a US citizen come as the rock and roll hitmaker expressed fears about Trump forbidding him from returning to the country if he goes on his upcoming international tour in Europe.
‘When I go to play music in Europe, if I talk about Donald J. Trump, I may be one of those returning to America who is barred or put in jail to sleep on a cement floor with an aluminum blanket,’ Young wrote on his website on April 1.
Daryl Hannah claimed that immigration officials tried t sabotage her husband Neil Young’s application for US citizenship back in 2019, which was under the first Trump administration
Hannah’s revelation comes as Young fears he won’t be let back into the country if he goes on a Europe tour planned for this summer
He continued: ‘That is happening all the time now. Countries have new advice for those returning to America. You can read about it at the CANADA Desk. If I come back from Europe and am barred, can’t play my USA tour, all of the folks who bought tickets will not be able to come to a concert by me.
‘That’s right folks, if you say anything bad about Trump or his administration, you may be barred from re-entering USA,’ he went on.
Young has long been an outspoken critic of Trump, calling him ‘the worst president in the history.’
In 2020, he even sued the Trump campaign to try to get them to stop using his music at their rallies.
Young voluntarily dismissed the lawsuit December, after Trump lost to Joe Biden that November. The New York court where it was brought dismissed it ‘with prejudice,’ meaning it cannot be relitigated.
Hannah, who married Young in 2018, said she hopes he doesn’t face any retaliation because of his US citizenship but appears more optimistic than her husband.
‘They’ve been detaining people who have green cards or visas – which is hideous and horrifying – but they have not, so far, been refusing to let American citizens back in the country, so I don’t think that’s going to happen,’ she said.
Mahmoud Khalil is a high profile example of a green card holder that the Trump administration has detained
The Trump administration has argued that Khalil’s continued presence in the US ‘potentially serious foreign policy consequences’
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Mahmoud Khalil is a high profile example of a green card holder that the Trump administration has detained.
Khalil was a recent graduate student at the Columbia University in New York, where he held a prominent role in the anti-Israel protests that roiled the Ivy League college last spring.
He was born in Syria but has Algerian citizenship through his mother.
Kahlil was arrested at his apartment in front of his pregnant wife. He’s been in a detention center in Louisiana since mid-March.
There are no criminal charges against Khalil, but Secretary of State Marco Rubio has argued that his continued presence in the US ‘potentially serious foreign policy consequences.’
An immigration judge agreed with Rubio’s assessment and deemed Khalil ‘removable’ from the US, though Khalil’s lawyers will appeal the ruling.