Anxious immigrant families caught in Trump order mostly relieved

Protesters, civil rights lawyers and families descended upon airports across the country Sunday amid confusion over the enforcement of an order signed by President Trump barring entry of people from seven majority-Muslim countries.

A string of legal decisions, including the late-Saturday ruling by a federal judge in New York halting the government from enforcing Trump’s order against people with valid visas, had added to the uncertainty. Advocates on the ground said customs officials had appeared confused about how to enforce the dueling edicts of the executive order and the federal stay.

As Trump continued to double down on the ban, Department of Homeland Security Secretary John Kelly issued a major clarification Sunday night — that green-card holders would automatically be allowed to enter the U.S., unless there is some evidence of a threat to public safety.

Ebraham Abuzaid kisses his brother, Mustafa Abuzaid, left, after Mustafa Abuzaid was released at the San Francisco Airport in San Francisco, Calif., Sunday, January 29, 2017. Ebraham Abuzaid kisses his brother, Mustafa Abuzaid, left, after Mustafa Abuzaid was released at the San Francisco Airport in San Francisco, Calif., Sunday, January 29, 2017. Photo: Mason Trinca, Special To The Chronicle Photo: Mason Trinca, Special To The Chronicle Image 1 of / 25 Caption Close Anxious immigrant families caught in Trump order mostly relieved 1 / 25 Back to Gallery

By Sunday afternoon, all detainees at San Francisco International Airport affected by the executive order had been released, said Doug Yakel, a spokesman for the airport. A White House official told reporters that all 170 green-card holders who applied for a waiver had received one as of Sunday afternoon. Meanwhile, at SFO, many who had been waiting anxiously for family members caught in the order’s web were reunited.

One Iranian American man had been waiting more than 12 hours for a call from his older brother who was detained at SFO. Finally it came at 7 p.m. Saturday: “I’m safe. I’m sound,” said his brother, who was attempting to come to the U.S. from Iran with a valid visa.

Then the phone cut off. Nothing.

The family was set to have their first reunion in six years. But the man was detained. The family is not Muslim and requested anonymity due to fears of religious persecution in Iran.

The federal court ruling appeared to offer hope by preventing the government from sending back travelers, such as the older brother from Iran. But on Sunday, family members were told by their attorney that the older brother was being sent from a detention facility back to the airport for a flight to the Middle East.

They were stunned. The family went to the airport and waited. Just after 3 p.m. Sunday, they got word he was being released. The two brothers ran to each other in the airport, held each other and cried. Their mother almost collapsed from joy.

“I never thought I’d see this. I thought this was a lost fight,” the younger brother said. “The people’s willpower works.”

A group of other immigrants had been released earlier Sunday, including an elderly Iranian couple who had been traveling with a visa but were held for more than 30 hours at the airport.

“I think customs and border control is trying to make sense of a poorly worded executive order and then an emergency stay on that poorly written executive order,” said Zahra Billoo, head of the Bay Area’s Council on American-Islamic Relations chapter. “That’s led to confusion and even less clarity than we ordinarily get in border stop situations.”

Billoo, who was at the airport Saturday evening, said it was difficult to figure out exactly what was happening behind closed doors. Unless people traveling provided itineraries, or their families made contact with them, attorneys were out of the loop. And while those traveling from abroad may contact family when they land, phone use is generally not permitted as they go through customs, she said.

“It’s very challenging,” Billoo said.

Meanwhile, as Republican Sens. John McCain of Arizona and Lindsey Graham of South Carolina criticized the order, Trump doubled down on the edict. Trump said the two senators were “weak” on immigration.

“To be clear, this is not a Muslim ban, as the media is falsely reporting,” he said in a statement. “This is not about religion — this is about terror and keeping our country safe.”

Trump’s chief of staff, Reince Priebus, told NBC Sunday morning that it was possible more countries could be added to the list of those currently barred — Sudan, Syria, Iran, Somalia, Libya, Iraq and Yemen.

Senate Democrats were gearing up to fight the order in Congress. Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., said she would introduce two bills on Monday. One would rescind the order, while the other would add congressional oversight over the president’s authority to ban people from the U.S.

“The president’s blatantly discriminatory executive order should be rescinded immediately,” she said in a statement. “The consequences of this order will be far-reaching and were obviously not carefully considered. People all around the world will be affected, including Americans.”

Meanwhile, the impact of the order remained painful to families across California.

Khayrat Rochan, a 41-year-old Syrian American who owns a business in Daly City, canceled a planned flight for his mother set to arrive in San Francisco Monday. His 78-year-old mother holds a green card, and Rochan had spent his recent days setting up a home he had rented for her. His mother had sold her land and house in Syria because she planned to come and live in the U.S.

“It is inhumane. ... I don’t know what to do,” he said of his mother, who must be transported at airports in a wheelchair and has limited vision. He did not want her to travel during the uncertainty of how the order was being implemented.

Elsewhere, an attorney for a 12-year-old girl in Yemen whose parents are U.S. citizens in the Central Valley and who was turned away from a flight to the U.S. on Saturday had sent a letter to the U.S. Embassy in Djibouti requesting that she be allowed to come the U.S. The family has yet to receive a reply.

And in Berkeley, Omid Solari, a 28-year-old Iranian obtaining his doctorate at UC Berkeley who is in the country on a student visa, was contemplating whether he’d ever see his family again. An appointment for his parents in Iran to apply for a visa was suddenly canceled this weekend.

“Now neither I can go out of the U.S. to meet my family and come back, nor they can come here and meet me. I really miss my family,” he said.

Trump’s order temporarily halts refugee admissions while indefinitely suspending Syrian refugees from being admitted into the country. The Department of Homeland Security said Sunday night that the agency was working closely with airlines to prevent those would not be allowed into the country under the order from getting on flights.

“Therefore, we do not anticipate that further individuals traveling by air to the United States will be affected,” the statement read.

A department official said Saturday evening that 73 people had been told not to get on airplanes headed to the U.S.

For many Muslims living in America, the Trump order was met with shock, said Dalia Mogahed, the director of research at the Institute for Social Policy and Understanding.

“I've been in two states over the past 48 hours meeting with families and students and I can tell you these executive orders have triggered widespread trauma among Americans who are Muslim,” she said Sunday. “These edicts send a simple message: If you're a Muslim, the White House doesn't want you here, and looks at you with suspicion because of your faith. The impact of these decisions is the breakup of families, the disruption of work and education. They do absolutely nothing to make us safer.”

Hamed Aleaziz is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: haleaziz@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @haleaziz