A federal judge has just stepped in on behalf of a couple of Iraqi refugees who landed today but were denied entry, issuing a stay on Trump’s executive order:
BREAKING: Federal judge in New York bars U.S. from deporting travelers with valid visas covered by Trump order.
— The Associated Press (@AP) January 29, 2017
BREAKING: Federal judge grants emergency stay to temporarily allow people who landed in U.S. with valid visa to remain
— Reuters Top News (@Reuters) January 29, 2017
BUSINESS INSIDER – A federal judge in Brooklyn, New York issued an emergency ruling Saturday evening on President Donald Trump’s executive order barring travelers from seven Muslim-majority countries from entering the US, American Civil Liberties Union lawyers said.
The ruling, an emergency stay, temporarily allows people who landed in the US with a valid visa to remain.
The ACLU had filed a habeas corpus petition on behalf of two Iraqi refugees, who were detained by border agents at John F. Kennedy airport in New York City, despite having previously been granted asylum and holding valid visas. Both men were released Saturday.
The stay will temporarily allow those who have landed in the US with valid visas to remain in the country.
Trump’s order, signed Friday afternoon, had prompted widespread chaos at airports across the country as refugees and travelers were detained after arriving and denied entry.
The order halted refugee arrivals into the US for 120 days, and it barred citizens of Iraq, Iran, Sudan, Libya, Somalia, and Yemen for 90 days.
The ACLU lawyers argued the order was “unconstitutional” and a “violation of international law.”
In related news…
REUTERS – President Donald Trump said on Saturday his executive order curbing immigration into the United States was not a ban on Muslims and was working out well.
“It’s not a Muslim ban,” Trump told reporters in the Oval Office at the White House. “It’s working out very nicely. You see it at the airports, you see it all over.”
The new Republican president on Friday put a four-month hold on allowing refugees into the United States and temporarily barred travelers from Syria and six other Muslim-majority countries. He said the moves would protect Americans from terrorism, in a swift and stern delivery on a campaign promise.
“We’re going to have a very, very strict ban and we’re going to have extreme vetting, which we should have had in this country for many years,” Trump said.