Among those blindsided Saturday by President Donald Trump's executive orders slamming the nation's borders shut with little warning were dozens of immigrants detained with their loved ones at DFW International Airport.

Relief arrived late Saturday in the form of an emergency order issued by a federal judge in Brooklyn. As of Sunday morning, however, Dallas-area attorneys were trying to get updates on about a dozen travelers who had been held at DFW Airport overnight.

Alia Salem, executive director of the Dallas/Fort Worth chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, said government officials had told lawyers representing families of the detained travelers that they wouldn't be flown back Sunday. But it was unclear whether they would be released.

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U.S. District Judge Ann Donnelly's temporary stay, requested by the ACLU in the case of two Iraqi men detained in New York, blocked part of the president's actions, preventing the government from deporting some arrivals who found themselves ensnared by the presidential order.

But it stopped short of letting them into the country or issuing a broader ruling on the constitutionality of Trump's actions.

As news of the judge's stay reached the crowd of over 1,000 gathered at DFW Airport, the mood quickly shifted from anger and sadness to jubilation. More cheers arose as news of the order was translated into other languages.

"It shows the power of the people," Zafar Syed, a naturalized U.S. citizen from India, said of the judge's order before joining in a chant: "This is what democracy looks like!"

.@DFWAirport crowd reacts to news of emergency stay against Trump's "Muslim ban" pic.twitter.com/hOlAxYbu1o — Julieta Chiquillo (@jmchiquillo) January 29, 2017

Dallas crowd at airport starts channeling civil rights icon César Chavez as they support #Muslim immigrants. #SiSePuede pic.twitter.com/hmPSo1qyjh — Dianne Solis (@disolis) January 29, 2017

Hours after her arrival at DFW, Najah Alshamieh, a Syrian-born immigrant, was released to her daughter at Terminal D and into the embrace of a crowd eager to protest the president's action, which they called a "Muslim ban."

Alshamieh, a 54-year-old with legal immigration status, beamed as the crowd cheered her, the first immigrant to be released by federal immigration authorities.

Her daughter Mariam Yasin pushed away blue balloons to hug her.

"She was treated well," said Yasin, serving as her mother's translator, "but she said the others were not."

Still awaiting entry were a 70-year-old Iranian woman in a wheelchair who had been denied entry for more than 12 hours and the husband of a 68-year-old, who said she was "disappointed and sad," but not angry.

Attorneys still being denied access to handful of detainees still being held at DFW. All are elderly; most have numerous medical conditions. — Robert Wilonsky (@RobertWilonsky) January 29, 2017

Well-placed source: 9 to 11 detainees still at DFW. Went to bed at 9 after being given dinner. Likely here till morning. After that, unclear — Robert Wilonsky (@RobertWilonsky) January 29, 2017

Attorney Martin Valko said one of his clients, a 64-year-old Sudanese woman with a medical condition, told him that those still detained had been given documents to sign away their visas.

Still, he said, "We hope for release."

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On Sunday morning, Valko said he was prepared to file a temporary restraining order in federal court if Cleatus Hunt, the Customs and Border Patrol area port director at DFW Airport did not release the remaining detainees.

Dozens of people streamed into DFW Airport again on Sunday morning to demand the release of travelers who were held at the airport overnight. Some broke into song: "This land is your land, this land is my land."

Muslim women make a red-white-n-blue #hijab statement @DFWairport. Families & supporters continue wait for detainees hit by #MuslimBan pic.twitter.com/nfqWTofvA5 — Dianne Solis (@disolis) January 29, 2017

Elnaz Ghotbi Ravandi paced Terminal D. Her Iranian parents — whom she hasn't seen in two years — and her sister were inside, unable to leave with their tourist visas.

Ghotbi Ravandi said she talked to them on the phone Saturday night. They told her they had been fed and treated well. But they were heartbroken.

"My mom was crying," Ghotbi Ravandi said.

Her parents, both in their 60s, were booked on a flight to return them to Iran on Sunday morning, she said. There has been no news about them since Saturday night.

Good morning. Dozens of demonstrators are back at @DFWAirport in support of detained travelers affected by Trump's "Muslim ban" pic.twitter.com/xThI90maNo — Julieta Chiquillo (@jmchiquillo) January 29, 2017

Ghotbi Ravandi, who is a green-card holder, said she has three more years before she's eligible to become a U.S. citizen. Now she worries she won't be reunited with her family until that moment comes, if Trump's immigration restrictions are extended.

"I cannot see my parents for five years," she said. "That's crazy."

The stalemate at DFW was among many standoffs at airports in the United States this weekend over what some described as the very identity of America. It's unclear exactly how many were caught in legal limbo, but the ACLU put the number detained nationally at up to 200.

Trump's orders called for increased vetting of immigrants from seven predominantly Muslim countries and a temporary ban on resettlement of most refugees.

The president defended his order Saturday, saying the action was working well even as confusion broke out at airports around the world and government agencies and airlines tried to interpret the new rules.

"It's not a Muslim ban," Trump told reporters in the Oval Office. "We were totally prepared. It's working out very nicely. You see it at the airports, you see it all over. It's working out very nicely."

At DFW Airport, the measures resulted in U.S. immigration officials detaining nine immigrants into the evening, all apparently with visas, their family members said.

"This is not America," said Ahmad Behgooy, a native of Iran who is now a naturalized U.S. citizen. He waited for his son, a U.S. citizen who would not leave his wife, Shima, alone with immigration officials. "This is the land of immigrants. This is humiliating."

Dallas' mayor appeared to share that opinion. Mike Rawlings delivered a sharp rebuke of Trump's executive order on Saturday, calling it "ill-thought-out" and bad for policy, business and people.

"It's bad for the heart," he said. "This is not a solution. This is a foul insult to the rest of the country."

Rawlings said the order threatens the state's business relations, breaks up families and "exacerbates the suffering" of refugees seeking sanctuary.

Rawlings also seemed pained that the chaos was playing out at DFW Airport, which is jointly owned by the cities of Dallas and Fort Worth.

"I am very sad about what this does for Dallas," he said. "Dallas is not this sort of city."

1 / 10Najah Alshamieh (left), from Syria, leaves Terminal D with her daughter Miriam Yasin. Alshamieh said she was treated well while she was detained. ((Jae S. Lee / Staff Photographer)) 2 / 10Shima Behgooy, a green card holder from Iran, cries on the shoulder of her father-in-law Ahmad Behgooy after she was held at DFW International Airport on Saturday. Shima's husband is a U.S. citizen. Her mother who was on the flight from Iran was sent back to Iran when they landed in Frankfurt, Germany.((Jae S. Lee / Staff Photographer)) 3 / 10Airport police stand guard as the number of protesters at DFW Internation Airport swelled from dozens to hundreds to more than 1,000 on Saturday. ((Jae S. Lee / Staff Photographer)) 4 / 10Cheryl Pollman holds a sign during a DFW Airport protest against a White House order banning refugees and legal immigrants from entering the U.S. ((Jae S. Lee / Staff Photographer)) 5 / 10People pray at the international arrives at Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport in Dallas, Saturday, Jan. 28, 2017. (Jae S. Lee / Staff Photographer) 6 / 10A man shouts "Trump" as he walks past demonstrators Saturday in Terminal D at DFW International Airport. ((Jae S. Lee / Staff Photographer)) 7 / 10Sami Abdalla holds up a sign while he waits for his grandmother from Sudan to be released at DFW Airport. ((Jae S. Lee / The Dallas Morning News)) 8 / 10Protesters hold signs against Trump's executive order banning people coming from certain countries inside the Terminal D at Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport in Dallas, Saturday, Jan. 28, 2017.(Jae S. Lee / Staff Photographer) 9 / 10Volunteer Stephanie Mascorro hands out snacks during a protest against Trump's executive order banning people coming from certain countries at Terminal D at Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport in Dallas, Saturday, Jan. 28, 2017.(Jae S. Lee / Staff Photographer) 10 / 10Muzen Elnur, 11, holds flowers while she waits for her grandmother from Sudan who was being detained at Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport in Dallas, Saturday, Jan. 28, 2017. Protestors at the airport demonstrated against President Trump's executive order banning individuals from certain Muslim-majority countries from entering the U.S. (Jae S. Lee / Staff Photographer)

By Saturday evening, a few dozen people who gathered at DFW Airport in support of Muslim travelers had mushroomed into a crowd of hundreds of demonstrators. Airport officers repeatedly had to ask them to clear the walkways as more people joined in the chanting.

"Set them free!" they yelled, while others held signs that read "Refugees are welcome here!"

By 6 p.m., both Alshamieh and Behgooy were released. Cheers erupted again. The Behgooy family waved and quickly fled the airport for their home in Plano.

The crowd at @DFWAirport keeps growing. One traveler said 30-40 people still being held pic.twitter.com/l6jX6DgeFz — Julieta Chiquillo (@jmchiquillo) January 29, 2017

Lawyers were huddled at the entrance of Terminal D, called into action by a Facebook post saying 50 Syrians had been denied entry early Saturday.

Lawyer Sahar Aziz said she believes there were at least half a dozen still being held Saturday night and fears they were being asked to sign documents for what's known as "expedited removal."

Those being denied entry in Dallas were from Iran, Iraq, Syria and Sudan. No refugees were among them, according to three local resettlement agencies.

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Morrie Pour Nourian, a Dallas immigration attorney, said he was unsuccessful securing the release of an Iranian family of four that arrived in Dallas about midnight Friday. By dawn, the family had been sent back to Iran, he said.

"Trump said he was against illegal immigration," Nourian said, "but they are turning away people who are coming legally."

He was given only one recourse to appeal his clients' denial.

"Customs told me to call the White House," he said.

Tearful reunion as Najah of #Syria reunites with daughter Miriam Yasin Dallas airport. Najah, 54, has a green card. Crowd cheers #MuslimMama pic.twitter.com/CjbNT4Za5m — Dianne Solis (@disolis) January 28, 2017

Around the nation, security officers at major international gateways had new rules to follow. Humanitarian organizations scrambled to cancel programs, delivering the bad news to families who were about to travel. Refugees who were airborne on flights when the order was signed were detained at airports.

"We've gotten reports of people being detained all over the country," said Becca Heller, director of the International Refugee Assistance Project. "They're literally pouring in by the minute."

There were numerous reports of students attending U.S. universities who were blocked from returning to the United States from visits abroad. One student said in a Twitter post that he would be unable to study at Yale. Another who attends the Massachusetts Institute of Technology was refused permission to board a plane. A Sudanese student at Stanford University was blocked for hours from returning to California.

Human rights groups reported that legal permanent residents of the United States who hold green cards were being stopped in foreign airports as they sought to return from funerals, vacations or study abroad.

.@JudgeClayJ at DFW: "Not since the St. Louis during WWII have we seen this sort of animus towards those fleeing violence and danger." pic.twitter.com/2SEHnFOCK4 — Robert Wilonsky (@RobertWilonsky) January 29, 2017

Those detained Friday and Saturday included an Iranian scientist headed to a lab in Boston, an Iraqi who had worked as an interpreter for the U.S. Army, a Syrian refugee family headed to a new life in Ohio and an Iraqi interpreter stopped on his way to Texas.

"I have the visa in my passport," said Labeeb Ali, who was stopped at Qatar's international airport.

Ali said he's long worked for an American security company and endured years of background checks in hopes of moving to the United States one day.

"They have killed my dream," he told The Washington Post. "They took it all away from me, in the last minutes."

'Let's not forget: U.S. is the land of immigrants,' says dad waiting 4 Iranian green-carder daughter-in-law, US cit son #muslimban #Dallas pic.twitter.com/TZUNJPFjiw — Dianne Solis (@disolis) January 28, 2017

77-year-old Iraqi woman with heart problems among those detained. Son says she's allowed 1 phone call. Visitor visa was valid at take off. pic.twitter.com/SJt9IaHrcj — Allison Harris (@AllisonFox4News) January 28, 2017

At DFW Airport, Alia Salem, executive director of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, said about 50 people had been detained at DFW Airport on Saturday morning.

By midafternoon that number was down to nine, some joined by local family members in a detention area at the airport.

She didn't know what happened to the other 40 or so people who had been detained in the morning.

"They were saying they had to be sent back," Salem said. "We're trying to intervene and see if anything can be done."

As night fell on Saturday, Jason Clark gathered people toward a corner in Terminal D's entrance. He stood on a chair and shouted.

"We have a team of lawyers working with the ACLU ready to help you," he said.

Another man told the rowdy crowd to keep it down so attorneys could work with Arabic translators.

But soon the crowd was chanting again.

"Set them free, set them free!" the protesters demanded. Others tried the rhythmic chant of "U-S-A, U-S-A," as they held banners that read, "We turned Jews back, now Muslims?"

Throughout it all, Osama Alolabi tried to smile. The mechanical engineering student at SMU got a cell message at 8:30 a.m. that his Syrian parents had arrived at the Dallas airport.

His 55-year-old father, Ahmed Motaz Alolabi, has diabetes, he said, and his mother, 54-year-old Basima Labbard, has high blood pressure.

"Put yourselves in my shoes," he said.

But Alolabi said he was less concerned about his own situation than the plight of others with elderly or sickly relatives.

"Some guy hasn't seen his mom in ages, and she's 80 years old. This might be the last time seeing his mom," he said. "It's heartbreaking."

Syed, the naturalized citizen from India, brought his 12-year-old daughter and 10-year-old son to DFW Airport to teach them a lesson about democracy.

Syed, who is Muslim, said he wanted to show his kids how to stand up to injustice.

"The power of the people can change anything," he said, about an hour after the crowd celebrated a stay against Trump's executive order.

His daughter, Zunaira, stood a few feet from her father in her sparkly beige hijab, separated by the swelling demonstration. Terminal D grew hotter and more crammed, but still, she chanted with the rest.

"Hey, hey, ho, ho, Muslim ban has got to go!"

1 / 17Protesters assemble at John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York, Saturday, Jan. 28, 2017 after earlier in the day two Iraqi refugees were detained while trying to enter the country. On Friday, Jan. 27, President Donald Trump signed an executive order suspending all immigration from countries with terrorism concerns for 90 days. Countries included in the ban are Iraq, Syria, Iran, Sudan, Libya, Somalia and Yemen, which are all Muslim-majority nations.(Craig Ruttle / AP) 2 / 17Hameed Khalid Darweesh, center, a former interpreter for the U.S. military in Iraq, embraces a supporter after his release from detention at John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York, Jan. 28, 2017. (VICTOR J. BLUE / NYT) 3 / 17A child wears a slogan on his jacket during a rally against a ban on Muslim immigration at San Francisco International Airport on January 28, 2017 in San Francisco, California. (Stephen Lam / Getty Images) 4 / 17Protestors rally during a demonstration against the Muslim immigration ban at John F. Kennedy International Airport on January 28, 2017 in New York City.(Stephanie Keith / Getty Images) 5 / 17April Harrison-Bader protests President Donald Trump's executive action barring individuals from certain Muslim majority countries from entering the United States at Terminal D at Dallas Fort Worth Airport, Saturday, Jan. 28, 2017.(Brandon Wade / AP) 6 / 17A protester stands facing police officers at an entrance of Terminal 4 at John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York, Saturday, Jan. 28, 2017, after earlier in the day two Iraqi refugees were detained while trying to enter the country. (Craig Ruttle / AP) 7 / 17Nour Ulayyet left, comforts her mother Isaaf Jamal Eddin at Munster Community Hospital Saturday, Jan. 28, 2017, in Munster, Ind. Ulayyet of Valparaiso, Ind., said her sister, a Syrian living in Saudi Arabia who had a valid visa, was sent back after arriving from Riyadh at Chicago's O'Hare International Airport on Saturday and told she couldn't enter the U.S. to help care for their sick mother.(Paul Beaty / AP) 8 / 17A crowd of protesters gathers outside of the Brooklyn Federal Courthouse as a judge hears a challenge against President Donald Trump's executive ban on immigration from several Muslim countries, on January 28, 2017 in Brooklyn. The judge issued an emergency stay on part of Trump's executive order, ruling that sending refugees stopped at U.S. airports back to their countries would be harmful. (Yana Paskova / Getty Images) 9 / 17Avriel Epps of Los Angeles joins holds a well known photo of a refugee child who drowned as he was fleeing a war torn country, as hundreds of demonstrators opposed to President Donald Trump's executive order barring entry to the U.S. of seven predominantly Muslim countries at the Tom Bradley International Terminal at Los Angeles International Airport Saturday, Jan. 28, 2017.(Reed Saxon / AP) 10 / 17A protestor plays "This Land Is Our Land" on a trumpet during a demonstration against the new ban on immigration issued by President Donald Trump at Logan International Airport on January 28, 2017 in Boston, Massachusetts. (Scott Eisen / Getty Images) 11 / 17Mazdak Tootkaboni is welcomed during a demonstration against the new ban on immigration issued by President Donald Trump at Logan International Airport on January 28, 2017 in Boston, Massachusetts. Tootkaboni is a U.S. green card holder from Iran and a professor at the University of Massachusetts at Dartmouth, who was separated from other passengers and questioned as a result of the new immigration ban issued by President Donald Trump. (Scott Eisen / Getty Images) 12 / 17People at the international arrival terminal as demonstrators hold signs against a ban on Muslim immigration at San Francisco International Airport on January 28, 2017 in San Francisco, California. (Stephen Lam / Getty Images) 13 / 17A man joins hundreds of demonstrators opposed to President Donald Trump's executive order barring entry to the U.S. by Muslims from certain countries at the Tom Bradley International Terminal at Los Angeles International Airport Saturday, Jan. 28, 2017, in Los Angeles. (Reed Saxon / AP) 14 / 17Demonstrators embrace in front of the arrivals terminal at San Francisco International Airport during demonstrations against President Donald Trump's executive order that bars citizens of seven predominantly Muslim countries from entering the U.S. Saturday, Jan. 28, 2017, in San Francisco.(Marcio Jose Sanchez / AP) 15 / 17Protesters gather at JFK International Airport's Terminal 4 to demonstrate against President Donald Trump's executive order on January 28, 2017, in New York. (BRYAN R. SMITH / AFP/Getty Images) 16 / 17Protestors rally at a demonstration against the new ban on immigration issued by President Donald Trump at Logan International Airport on January 28, 2017 in Boston, Massachusetts. (Scott Eisen / Getty Images) 17 / 17A protestor holds up a sign that reads "I Love My Muslim Neighbors" during a demonstration against the new ban on immigration issued by President Donald Trump at Logan International Airport on January 28, 2017 in Boston, Massachusetts.(Scott Eisen / Getty Images)

Trump's order, enacted Friday afternoon, suspended entry of nearly all refugees to the United States for 120 days, barred Syrian refugees indefinitely, and blocked entry into the United States for 90 days for citizens of seven predominantly Muslim countries: Iran, Iraq, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria and Yemen.

The White House said the restrictions would protect "the United States from foreign nationals entering from countries compromised by terrorism" and ensure "a more rigorous vetting process." But critics condemned Trump over the immediate collateral damage imposed on people who, by all accounts, had no sinister intentions in trying to come to the United States.

An official message to all U.S. diplomatic posts around the world provided instructions about how to treat people from the countries affected: "Effective immediately, halt interviewing and cease issuance and printing" of visas to the United States.

Confusion turned to panic at airports around the world, as travelers found themselves unable to board flights bound for the United States. In Dubai, United Arab Emirates, and Istanbul, airport and immigration officials turned passengers away at boarding gates and, in at least one case, ejected a family from a flight they had boarded.

Seyed Soheil Saeedi Saravi, a leading young scientist in Iran, had been scheduled to travel in the coming days to Boston, where he had been awarded a fellowship to study cardiovascular medicine at Harvard, according to Thomas Michel, the professor who was to supervise the research fellowship.

But Michel said the visas for the student and his wife had been indefinitely suspended.

"This outstanding young scientist has enormous potential to make contributions that will improve our understanding of heart disease, and he has already been thoroughly vetted," Michel wrote to The New York Times. "This country and this city have a long history of providing research training to the best young scientists in the world, many of whom have stayed in the USA and made tremendous contributions in biomedicine and other disciplines."

"I have a special immigration visa in my passport...because I work with the US govt. But when I came here they said "No."

via @ABC pic.twitter.com/Wue9r4U2ao — Dr. Yasmin (@DoctorYasmin) January 28, 2017

A spokesman for the Association of Public and Land-grant Universities — the association of large public colleges — said the group was aware of an Iranian undergraduate student who had been barred from boarding a flight.

A Syrian family of six who have been living in a Turkish refugee camp since fleeing their home in 2014 had been scheduled to arrive Tuesday in Cleveland, according to a report in The Cleveland Plain Dealer. Instead, the family's trip has been called off.

Danielle Drake, a community relations manager at US Together, a refugee resettlement agency, told the newspaper that Trump's ban reminded her of when the United States turned away Jewish refugees during World War II.

"All those times that people said, 'Never again,' well, we're doing it again," she said.

The crowd at @DFWAirport keeps growing. One traveler said 30-40 people still being held pic.twitter.com/l6jX6DgeFz — Julieta Chiquillo (@jmchiquillo) January 29, 2017

In Cairo on Saturday, five Iraqis and one Yemeni, all of whom had valid immigration visas, according to airport officials, were barred from boarding an EgyptAir flight headed to New York, The Associated Press reported.

It was not clear if any of the six passengers had been granted refugee status.

In Istanbul, during a stopover Saturday, passengers reported that security officers had entered a plane after everyone had boarded and ordered a young Iranian woman and her family to leave the aircraft.

Iranian green card holders who live in the United States were blindsided by the decree while on vacation in Iran, finding themselves in a legal limbo and unsure whether they would be able to return to the United States.

"How do I get back home now?" said Daria Zeynalia, a green card holder who was visiting family in Iran. He had rented a house and leased a car, and would be eligible for citizenship in November. "What about my job? If I can't go back soon, I'll lose everything."

Shadi Heidarifar, a philosophy student recently admitted to New York University, said in a message on Twitter that she had spent three years applying to universities in the United States.

"I had to work to save money, gather documents. The application fees were so expensive that a whole family could live for a month" on them, Heidarifar wrote. When she was accepted recently, she was elated. "But now my entire future is destroyed in one second."

The New York Times and The Washington Post contributed to this report.