Refugees traveling into the U.S. on Friday night were being detained at airports after President Trump's executive order immediately closed the nation's borders to refugees.



Two Iraqi refugees detained at Kennedy Airport in New York have filed a writ of habeas corpus seeking to be released, The New York Times reported Saturday.

They also filed a motion for class certification, to represent all refugees and immigrants being detained at ports of entry.

Trump on Friday signed an executive order that he said would provide a thorough vetting of refugees to ensure that "radical Islamic terrorists" cannot get into the United States.

Trump's order indefinitely blocks refugees from war-torn Syria from entering the U.S. and suspends all refugee admissions for 120 days while the administration determines which countries pose the least risk.

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Admission will resume only after vetting has been deemed "adequate" by the secretary of State, the secretary of Homeland Security and Director of National Intelligence.

One of the Iraqis detained at Kennedy Airport, Khalid Darweesh, has worked for the U.S. government in Iraq for 10 years, according to the Times report.

The other detainee Haider Sameer Abdulkhaleq Alshawi was arriving to the U.S. to join his wife, a U.S. contractor, and his young son.

The men were on separate flights into the U.S.

Complaints about their detainment were filed by the American Civil Liberties Union, the International Refugee Assistance Project at the Urban Justice Center, the National Immigration Law Center, Yale Law School’s Jerome N. Frank Legal Services Organization and the firm Kilpatrick Townsend & Stockton.

Attorneys told the Times that they weren't being allowed to meet with their clients.