Trump travel ban protest

Protesters gather at San Francisco International Airport on Saturday to denounce President Donald Trump's executive order that bars citizens of seven predominantly Muslim-majority countries from entering the U.S. Activists came in droves to international airports nationwide to protest the executive order. Two Cleveland Clinic residents were detained in New York City after a vacation to Iran, but the duo was released after an hours-long hold, a hospital spokeswoman told cleveland.com.

(Marcio Jose Sanchez, AP Photo)

CLEVELAND, Ohio - President Donald Trump today blamed weekend problems at U.S. airports on a Delta Air Lines ground stop, ignoring the confusion created at international airports in the U.S. from an executive order on immigration he signed Friday.

Trump's executive order caused chaos at airports as those traveling to the U.S. from the affected countries were detained and, in some cases, forced to leave the U.S. through Saturday evening, The New York Times reported. Protests broke out in airports from the East to West coasts throughout the weekend as confusion over implementation of the order reigned at international airports.

Delta, however, did not issue its unrelated ground stop until Sunday evening, long after the impact of the executive order was being felt across the country - and the world.

The Delta ground stop of all domestic flights was caused by a "system outage," the company said. It was the fourth such grounding of domestic flights by a major U.S. carrier in the past year.

While an inconvenience for waylaid passengers, the ground stops issued did not create the kind of chaos seen at U.S. airports this weekend after Trump's immigration order.

Yet, in a Tweet Monday morning, Trump blamed the big problems at airports over the weekend on the Delta computer outage.

Of the 325,000 international travelers who entered the United States Saturday, 109 were detained, Trump tweeted.

Only 109 people out of 325,000 were detained and held for questioning. Big problems at airports were caused by Delta computer outage,..... — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 30, 2017

protesters and the tears of Senator Schumer. Secretary Kelly said that all is going well with very few problems. MAKE AMERICA SAFE AGAIN! — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 30, 2017

He echoed a statement released Sunday by the Department of Homeland Security that said less than one percent of international visitors to the U.S. Saturday were detained.

"...Less than one percent of the more than 325,000 international air travelers who arrive every day were inconvenienced while enhanced security measures were implemented. These individuals went through enhanced security screenings and are being processed for entry to the United States, consistent with our immigration laws and judicial orders," the statement said.

But his statement said nothing about the kind of confusion taking hold at airports as authorities sorted through the hastily-passed executive order. Or of the people like Dr. Suha Abushamma, an internal medicine resident at the Cleveland Clinic who was forced to fly back to Saudi Arabia Saturday as result of the ban.

Abushamma had a valid work visa from Saudi Arabia, but is a citizen of Sudan, one of the countries included in Trump's wide-reaching ban. Her flight out of the U.S. left just minutes before a federal judge in New York challenged the President's ban and issued a nationwide stay Saturday that prevented anyone detained from being deported.

Trump's executive order placed a 120-day ban on refugees and a 90-day ban on visitors traveling to the U.S. from seven Muslim-majority countries: Iran, Iraq, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria and Yemen.

It initially barred those with green cards from entering the country. However, by Sunday officials - in another round of confusion- had revised that position, saying that those with green cards would undergo additional screening but be allowed in the U.S.

This weekend's Delta outage caused a number of delays, as well as about 170 cancellations Sunday and another 80 cancellations today. Delta's essential IT systems went down at about 6:30 p.m. but were restored shortly after midnight. Delta has not yet disclosed how many passengers were affected.

Approximately 80 flights scheduled for today have been canceled with additional cancellations possible. — Delta (@Delta) January 30, 2017

During the roughly two-hour United Airlines ground stop a week ago, just shy of 500 flights were affected.

Cleveland Hopkins International Airport escaped unscathed from the Delta outage, according to Michele Dynia, communications manager for the airport.

"I don't believe the Delta outage had any impact on us," Dynia said. "We didn't have any Delta flights."

The airport did have a few delays this morning, but those were primarily caused by the bad weather in the region.

Cleveland Hopkins, which does not have any direct flights to the countries included in Trump's executive order, was the site of a 450-person protest Sunday. But the protests did not interfere with local airport operations.

"Everything went peacefully," said Michele Dynia, communications manager for Cleveland Hopkins.

The airport had extra police officers on hand during the protest, which lasted about three hours.