John Bacon

USA TODAY





Refugees and some foreigners were racing the clock to enter the United States as the Trump administration prepared to press a federal appeals court Monday for reinstatement of its controversial travel ban.

The San Francisco-based court denied the Trump administration's request Sunday but ordered the states of Washington and Minnesota, which filed suit to halt the ban, to provide more details. The Justice Department was told to file its response later Monday.

President Trump issued the travel ban Jan. 27, one week after his inauguration. His executive order suspended entry of all refugees to the U.S. for 120 days, halted admission of refugees from Syria indefinitely and barred entry for three months to citizens from seven predominantly Muslim countries — Iraq, Syria, Iran, Sudan, Libya, Somalia and Yemen.

After days of legal wrangling, federal Judge James Robart in Seattle issued the temporary restraining order Friday night that lifted the ban nationwide. Robart, appointed to the bench by President George W. Bush in 2004, cited "immediate and irreparable injury as a result of the signing and implementation of the executive order."

With the ban on hold at least temporarily, people with jeopardized travel plans were on the move. Lebanon's National News Agency reported that airlines operating out of Beirut's Rafik Hariri International Airport allowed people from the seven affected countries to board U.S.-bound planes. In Egypt, Cairo airport officials told the Associated Press that 33 people from Yemen, Syria and Iraq boarded flights Sunday for the United States.

Late Sunday, an Iranian researcher who had been prevented from coming to the United States to do research at Stanford University arrived safely at New York's Kennedy Airport.

Nima Enayati was turned away last week when he tried to fly to New York from Italy, where he's working on a Ph.D.

Enayati said, "It feels great finally I'm here."

Enayati is on a visa for three months to conduct research at Stanford working on robotics that will help make surgeries less invasive and cheaper for patients.

The Royal Jordanian airline took a lighter tack, tweeting an ad: "Fly to the US on RJ now that you're allowed to." The ad included the words "Bon voyage!" with the first word tweaked to look as if it previously said "ban."

In Iran, Foreign Minister Mohammad-Javad Zarif reversed an earlier decision and said visas will be granted to American wrestlers to travel to Iran to attend the 2017 Freestyle World Cup, the Islamic Republic News Agency reported.

The fate of Trump's executive order is far from resolved. Any decision emerging from the appeals court in the coming days is likely to be appealed further, likely up to the Supreme Court. More limited challenges to the ban also are pending in district courts in Massachusetts, New York, Virginia and Hawaii.

The Justice Department, arguing its case Saturday in the appeal, accused Robart of "judicial second-guessing of the President" that constitutes an "impermissible intrusion" into Trump's authority over who can enter the country.

"This is particularly true as to predictive judgments about the potential national security threat posed by a class of aliens," the department said in its appeal. "A reviewing court would not be well-equipped to ascertain the quantum of risk, or what is a reasonable margin of error in assessing risk."

Trump was more succinct, tweeting that the "opinion of this so-called judge" would ultimately be overturned.

"The judge opens up our country to potential terrorists and others that do not have our best interests at heart," Trump said on Twitter. "Bad people are very happy!"

The State Department said it was restoring tens of thousands of canceled visas for foreigners, and the Department of Homeland Security "suspended all actions" for enforcing the ban and instead began standard inspection of travelers.

READ MORE:

Meet James Robart, the judge who halted Trump’s immigration ban

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The State Department on Saturday advised refugee aid agencies that refugees set to travel before Trump signed the order will now be allowed in. A State Department official said in an email obtained by the Associated Press that the government was "focusing on booking refugee travel" through Feb. 17 and working to have arrivals resume as soon as Monday.

Trump's Jan. 27 executive order immediately sparked anger and confusion across the nation. Scores of incoming travelers were held up at U.S. airports, and many more were halted from boarding flights bound for the United States. Protests erupted at airports and city halls nationwide.

The ACLU and other advocacy groups now urge travelers caught in limbo to act quickly. Omar Jadwat, director of the ACLU’s Immigrants’ Rights Project, applauded the weekend ruling as "another stinging rejection of President Trump’s unconstitutional Muslim ban. We will keep fighting to permanently dismantle this un-American executive order."

Becca Heller, director of the New York-based International Refugee Assistance Project, stressed that previously issued visas would once again be valid unless they were stamped "canceled."

"The reinstatement of visas is the only right move to remedy the situation of the last week, which has caused havoc here in the United States and across the world,” Heller said.

The Trump administration had a different take. Vice President Mike Pence made the rounds of the Sunday morning news shows, stressing the importance of the executive order.

“From the outset of his campaign and administration, the president of the United States has made it clear to put the safety of the American people first," Pence told Fox News Sunday. "We are going to win this argument.”

During his Sunday sermon, the Rev. Kevin Ulmet, senior pastor of Nashville First Church of the Nazarene, recounted the African congregation's nearly two-year history. Pastor Jerome Songolo, a refugee who fled the strife-torn Democratic Republic of the Congo, stood beside him, translating his words from English to Swahili.

"I want to say this very clearly: Those whom God wants here God will bring here and no government or president will stop that, because God will do what God will do and his kingdom will advance."

Contributing: AP, Holly Meyer, The Tennessean