Court grants temporary, emergency stay of Trump's immigration ban

Show Caption Hide Caption Protests erupt at U.S. airports over refugee ban Protests flared as President Trump's executive order blocked refugees from entering U.S. airports, including travelers who already had valid visas.

President Trump’s ban on immigration by citizens from seven Muslim-majority countries ran into at least a temporary roadblock Saturday night, after a U.S. District judge in Brooklyn granted an emergency stay sought by immigrants’ rights lawyers.

The judge’s ruling applies to those who have already arrived in the U.S. and those who are in transit who hold valid visas. The decision halts part of Trump’s executive order, which barred citizens from those seven countries for the next 90 days.

The Department of Homeland Security said that by Saturday evening, its agents had stopped 109 foreigners at U.S. airports based on Trump’s order and prevented another 173 people from boarding flights headed for the U.S.

After U.S. District Court Ann Donnelly granted the stay, the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), which had filed suit to block Trump’s ban, issued a one-word celebratory tweet: “Victory!!!!!!”

Trump’s executive order, signed Friday, suspends the entry of all refugees to the U.S. for 120 days, halts admission of refugees from Syria indefinitely and bars entry for three months to residents from the predominantly Muslim countries of Iraq, Syria, Iran, Sudan, Libya, Somalia and Yemen.

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In a statement early Sunday, the Department of Homeland Security said the court order would not affect the overall implementation of the White House executive action and that it affected a relatively small number of travelers, the Associated Press reported.

The department’s statement said: “President Trump’s Executive Orders remain in place — prohibited travel will remain prohibited, and the U.S. government retains its right to revoke visas at any time if required for national security or public safety."

A senior Homeland Security official, who spoke on condition of anonymity to provide an operational update on Trump’s executive order, said the department quickly overhauled its screening procedures after Trump signed the order Friday. The department issued new guidance to its Customs and Border Protection officers in the field and adjusted its computerized targeting system to identify people who are barred entry through the executive order.

The official said the order allowed legal permanent residents — known as green-card holders — and foreigners who were granted special visas for Iraqi and Afghan interpreters, to enter after undergoing a full background check and in-person interview. The official said 81 people made it through that process and were allowed to enter the country. The official said Homeland Security’s legal team was reviewing the New York federal judge's Saturday ruling and that the department would adjust its practices in line with the order.

In Virginia, another federal judge issued a temporary restraining order Saturday night, directing the Department of Homeland Security to allow lawyers to meet with legal permanent residents detained at Washington Dulles International Airport. U.S. District Judge Leonie Brinkema also forbade Homeland Security from deporting any of the green-card holders for seven days.

“President Trump never gave a second thought to how his discriminatory, un-American order would actually play out on the ground,” Virginia Attorney General Mark Herring said after the judge's ruling. “We will continue to explore any legal options available to the Commonwealth to oppose this misguided effort.”

Karen Tumlin, legal director for the National Immigration Law Center, which was part of the suit in New York, said the lawyers were “tremendously relieved” by the judge’s stay. But she said the legal team was quickly moving to free the immigrants who remained in U.S Customs and Border Protection custody Saturday night based on Trump’s executive order.

She challenged the DHS numbers, calling them "alternative facts."

"We have 50 Iranian green-card holders being held from one single flight at (Los Angeles International Airport)," Tumlin said. "It doesn't add up."

The fallout from the president's temporary ban struck with full force earlier Saturday, blocking some travelers from boarding their planes overseas, compelling others to turn around upon arrival in the U.S., and prompting customs agents at New York's JFK Airport to detain at least a dozen people, including a former Iraqi translator for the U.S. military in Baghdad.

The growing chaos also sparked legal challenges, airport protests, condemnations from politicians and denunciations from advocacy groups.

New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo Saturday tweeted an offer of support to those who had been stopped at the state's airports: "I have directed Port Authority, @NYSDOS, & my Counsel's Office to jointly explore all legal options to assist anyone detained at NY airports."

I have directed Port Authority, @NYSDOS, & my Counsel's Office to jointly explore all legal options to assist anyone detained at NY airports pic.twitter.com/AT8p3rstsD — Andrew Cuomo (@NYGovCuomo) January 28, 2017

Cuomo's tweet linked to a statement in which he objected to refugees being blocked from entering the U.S.

"I never thought I'd see the day when refugees, who have fled war-torn countries in search of a better life, would be turned away from our doorstep. We are a nation of bridges, not walls, and a great many of us still believe in the words 'give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses …' " he wrote. "This is not who we are, not who we should be."

Video: Protests of immigration restrictions Sara Flounders from Jersey City at the Union Square subway station en route to JFK protests.

The reverberations began only hours after Trump signed the executive order Friday. In brief remarks while signing his latest executive orders Saturday, Trump maintained the order isn't a "Muslim ban."

“It’s working out very nicely. We’re going to have a strict ban, and we’re going to have extreme vetting, which we should have had in this country for many years," he said.

The ban includes green card holders, who will need a case-by-case waiver to return to the United States, a senior administration official said in a White House briefing Saturday. Green card holders already in the U.S. will need to meet with a consular officer before leaving the country, according to the official, who declined to be identified under the rules of the briefing.

Speaking to hundreds of demonstrators at JFK Airport, Rep. Jerrold Nadler, D-N.Y., called the ban ineffective, discriminatory, "disgusting," and said it "goes against every ounce of our traditions from George Washington onward."

"We are here to say it should be stopped and be revoked," he said.

About 50 people were detained at Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport, said Alia Salem, executive director for DFW Chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR). Families have been waiting at Terminal D in anticipation of meeting relatives who been held up in U.S Customs. A representative with CAIR met with families waiting for relatives. Some of them have been waiting for several hours.

At Philadelphia International Airport, two Syrian families, described as Christians, were briefly detained Saturday after arriving from Qatar and sent back three hours later. The families included two brothers, their wives and two children, according to a family member form Allentown, Pa., NBC10 reported. "This is like a nightmare come true," said Joseph Assali, who noted that the families had visas and green cards legally obtained months ago.

Mohammed Al Rawi, chief information officer for Los Angeles County, said on Facebook that his father was removed from a flight in Qatar as a direct result of the order. "My 71-year-old dad is in Qatar boarding LAX flight to come visit us and and he's being sent back to Iraq. Some US official told him that Trump canceled all visas," he wrote.

Foreigners studying at U.S. universities who were part of study-abroad programs were also stuck. Even Customs and Border Protection agents were confused about how to handle Trump’s order and responding in different ways, he said.

Those holding dual nationality in the seven nations involved in the ban will also be barred from entering the United States, the Wall Street Journal reported citing a statement from the State Department that has yet to be released.

Pleased to announce w/@NydiaVelazquez the release of Hameed Jhalid Darweesh from detention at JFK. pic.twitter.com/AeKDhIPp7k — (((Rep. Nadler))) (@RepJerryNadler) January 28, 2017

In Cairo, seven migrants — six from Iraq and one from Yemen — were being escorted by officials from the U.N. refugee agency when they were stopped from boarding the EgyptAir plane, the Associated Press reported, quoting Cairo airport officials.

The authorities stepped in after contacting their counterparts at JFK Airport, where the plane was headed. The officials spoke to AP on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to brief the media.

Hameed Khaldi Darweesh, who worked a translator for American forces for 10 years, was detained overnight along with 11 others following his arrival from Istanbul. After being released Saturday afternoon, Darweesh said he had feared he would be sent back to Iraq, which his family fled because of death threats.

When asked by reporters outside the airport what he thought of Trump, Darweesh said, “I don’t know. He’s a president, I’m a normal person.”

He said he was focused instead on the lawyers who won his release. “This is the soul of America,” Darweesh said. “This is what pushed me to move, to leave my country and come here. America is the land of freedom.”

Haider Sameer Abdulkhaleq Alshawi, who was trying to join his wife and child and detained along with Darweesh, was released hours later Saturday. His wife worked for a U.S. contractor in Iraq as an accountant, was granted a refugee visa and is now living in Houston. Alshawi was approved for a visa to join his wife and their 7-year-old son on Jan. 11.

According to a federal complaint filed on behalf of two Iraqis being held at JFK airport, one attorney approached Customs and Border Patrol agents with a request to speak to his client, but was told they were not the ones to talk to about seeing him.

"Who is the person to talk to?" the lawyer asked, according to the complaint. The unidentified CBP agents responded: "Mr. President. Call Mr. Trump."

Full statement of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Islamic Republic of Iran on the #MuslimBan. 6/7 pic.twitter.com/Y3gAxT0B8m — Javad Zarif (@JZarif) January 28, 2017

According to one of the lawyers, Mark Doss, the pair had been approved for entry as refugees but were in the air flying to the U.S. night when the order was being signed.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection was working to provide waivers for the two Iraqis involved in the lawsuit, according to the official at the White House briefing.

“No person living or residing overseas has a right to entry into the United States,” the official said. “There is not a travel ban (from the seven countries). It is a cessation of most travel with case-by-case exceptions.”

Abed Ayoud, legal and policy director for the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee, said the group received more than 1,000 calls by midday Saturday from people who have been stranded or detained in the U.S. and abroad.

He said legal immigrants traveling overseas to attend funerals and visit family when the president signed his order are now unable to return to the U.S.



“The impact of what President Trump was looking for is in full effect,” Ayoud said. “Complete chaos.”

In Tehran, Iran's foreign minister, Javad Zarif, said his country would respond by banning all U.S. citizens from the country as long as the U.S. policy was in effect, but would not include anyone who already received a visa. In a statement, the foreign ministry called the U.S. order "a clear insult to the Islamic world, and especially to the great nation of Iran."

In signing the executive order, Trump said the new administration needed time to develop a stricter screening process for refugees, immigrants and visitors. "I'm establishing new vetting measures to keep radical Islamic terrorists out of the United States of America. Don't want them here," he said.

The executive order, which he said was aimed at protecting Americans from terrorist attacks, singled out Syrian refugees as "detrimental to the interests of the United States."

When the refugee program resumes, the executive order calls for changes to "prioritize refugee claims made by individuals on the basis of religious-based persecution, provided that the religion of the individual is a minority religion in the individual's country of nationality."

"We only want to admit those into our country who will support our country and love deeply our people," Trump said.

CAIR said it will file a federal lawsuit Monday in the Eastern District of Virginia to challenge the constitutionality of the order, charging its apparent purpose and underlying motive is to ban people of the Islamic faith from Muslim-majority countries from entering the United States.

“There is no evidence that refugees — the most thoroughly vetted of all people entering our nation — are a threat to national security,” said CAIR National Litigation Director Lena F. Masri. “This is an order that is based on bigotry, not reality.”

Marielena Hincapié, executive director of the National Immigration Law Center, one of the groups representing the Iraqi men detained at JFK, said the lawsuit is directed solely at immigrants who have been caught in legal limbo following Trump’s announcement. The lawyers are trying to expand it into a class action suit to cover the untold number of refugees caught in the same situation.

Hincapié said they are planning separate lawsuits challenging the legality of Trump’s executive actions on immigration, partly because they target majority Muslim nations. But she said for now, they simply want to resolve the cases of people who are being detained at airports. They are trying to get an emergency hearing before a judge this weekend.

“These are people who already had a horrific experience of being a refugee,” she said. “They left everything behind. And now, to find themselves in detention at an airport with no contacts, not knowing what can be done, only hearing little bits and pieces on the news about this executive order. I think folks are just scared and don’t know how to respond at this moment.”