Michigan Democratic Senate Candidate Discusses Sister-in-Law’s Watchlist Status

During a recent event, Michigan Democratic Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed confirmed that his sister-in-law was placed on the federal terrorist watchlist during President Barack Obama’s administration but said she was removed in 2016.

This information came to light when Fox News senior correspondent Mike Tobin approached El-Sayed in a hallway, referencing court documents that named his sister-in-law, Mariam Jukaku, as a plaintiff in a 2016 lawsuit aimed at contesting her alleged listing on the Terrorist Screening Dataset.

Tobin specifically inquired, “There’s reporting in a lawsuit that now backs it up. And documentation with the lawsuit that Mariam Jukaku, who’s your sister-in-law, that she was on the terrorist watch list?”

El-Sayed acknowledged this by saying, “Yeah,” according to Fox News.

In defense of Jukaku, he insisted that she had done nothing wrong and subsequently pointed to his Republican opponent, Mike Rogers.

“She did nothing wrong and was captured on that and then sued and got off,” El-Sayed stated. “You’ve got this system where folks are guilty until proven innocent because they’ve got different kinds of names, because of the infrastructure that people like Mike Rogers set up.”

He further suggested that the watchlist is flawed, mentioning that even a “child” was reportedly on the same list.

Interestingly, it was under the Obama administration that Jukaku was initially added to the list, which creates an awkward situation since former President Obama is scheduled to campaign with El-Sayed in Michigan on October 24.

The 2016 lawsuit revealed that Jukaku faced extensive security checks at airports in 2012 without being informed of her flagged status.

It noted she was believed to have been removed from the watchlist by 2016.

El-Sayed mentioned that she filed a lawsuit and won, but a federal appeals court later overturned that decision, favoring the other plaintiffs in 2021. Another lawsuit for damages was dismissed in 2017.

This raises questions about El-Sayed’s claim that she “sued and won,” as the appellate court did not rule in her favor.

The FBI has not provided any information about Jukaku’s current or past status.

The agency stated, “It is the U.S. government’s policy to neither confirm nor deny a person’s inclusion in the Terrorist Screening Dataset, commonly known as the terrorist watchlist.”

El-Sayed has faced scrutiny from Rogers and conservative commentators trying to link him to Muslim terrorist groups. This fall, he grappled with allegations regarding his family’s alleged ties to the Muslim Brotherhood, which is designated as a terrorist organization by the U.S. and several Middle Eastern nations.

His campaign has labeled such claims as “racist and untrue.”

On Saturday, Rogers branded these allegations as “disqualifying.”

Fox News reported that “the watchlist lawsuit does not establish wrongdoing by Jukaku or El-Sayed.”