The Homeland Security Department says a New York court order temporarily barring the U.S. from deporting people from nations subject to U.S. President Donald Trump’s travel ban will not affect the overall implementation of his executive order.
The agency said the court order affected a relatively small number of travellers who were detained in airports during security procedures upon their return to the U.S.
The federal court for the Eastern District of New York issued an emergency stay on Saturday, blocking part of the president’s order and preventing authorities from deporting some arrivals.
President Donald Trump’s advisers say a federal judge’s emergency order ‘really doesn’t affect’ his efforts to temporarily bar refugees and citizens of seven predominantly Muslim countries from entering the U.S. (Stephen Lam/Getty Images)
The ACLU estimates the stay applies to as many as 200 people who have valid visas, but were caught up in the chaos of the executive order at airports across the U.S.
“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 DHS statement said.
Stephen Miller, a senior adviser to the White House, said that nothing in the judge’s order “in anyway impedes or prevents the implementation of the president’s executive order which remains in full, complete and total effect.”
The new Republican president on Friday put a four-month hold on allowing refugees into the United States and barred for 90 days travellers from Syria and six other predominantly Muslim countries — Yemen, Sudan, Somalia, Libya, Iran and Iraq. The measure was framed as an anti-terrorism measure.
Protesters rally during a demonstration against the new immigration ban affecting people from seven Muslim-majority countries at John F. Kennedy International Airport on Saturday. (Stephanie Keith/Getty Images)
U.S. green card holders from those countries and travelling outside the United States need to check with a U.S. consulate to see whether they can return, senior U.S. administration officials said on Saturday.
New restrictions on immigrants and refugees will mean legal permanent residents who have passports from the seven countries have to be cleared back into the United States on a case-by-case basis, an official told reporters in a briefing.
“It’s being cleared on a case-by-case basis and being moved expeditiously,” the official said.
On Sunday, White House Chief of Staff Reince Priebus told NBC’s Meet the Press on Sunday green card holders are not under a travel ban, but may face additional security when they try to enter the U.S.
“If you’re coming in or out of one of those seven countries, by the way identified by the Obama administration as the seven most dangerous countries in the world in regard to harbouring terrorists and affirmed by Congress multiple times, then you’re going to be subjected temporarily with more questioning until a better program can be put in place over the next several months,” he said.
Trump order ‘incompetent, ineffective’
Jay Inslee, the Democratic governor of Washington state, said Trump’s order could have damaging consequences.
“This is probably the most incompetent, ineffective, unconsciously provocative and dangerous action of any government I have ever seen, and it’s very disappointing to see our federal government create chaos in our nation.
Our country needs strong borders and extreme vetting, NOW. Look what is happening all over Europe and, indeed, the world – a horrible mess!
“And let me note, these aren’t just refugees. These are business people who now might be in the high-tech sector, they might be physicians. They can’t leave the country now because they can’t get back in,” he said.
Immigration lawyers, activists and Democratic politicians reacted furiously to the chaos on Saturday, and many worked to help marooned travellers find a way back home.
The emergency court ruling was cheered at Boston’s Logan International Airport, one of several major U.S. airports where protesters angry with Trump’s order gathered.
Hundreds of protesters also gathered at airports in Dallas, Chicago, Washington, Philadelphia, New York and elsewhere while inside, anxious family members waited and worried for travellers.
At Chicago O’Hare International Airport, brothers Bardia and Ayden Noohi waited for four hours for their father Kasra Noohi — who has an Iranian passport and a U.S. green card — to be allowed through. They knew Trump had pledged tougher rules but did not expect they would affect holders of green cards, which allow foreigners to live and work in the United States.
“I didn’t think he’d actually do it,” Bardia Noohi, 32, said. “A lot of politicians just talk.”
Demonstrators block traffic at the international arrival terminal as they protest against the immigration ban affecting several Muslim-majority countries at San Francisco International Airport on Saturday. (Stephen Lam/Getty Images)
One of 12 refugees held at New York’s JFK Airport was Hameed Darweesh, whose wife and son are already permanent residents of the U.S.
Darweesh is one of the lead plaintiffs in a lawsuit launched by the American Civil Liberities Union against the executive order. He was granted permission to enter the country after working with the U.S. military for a decade. He spent some of that time as an interpreter and made a case that he faced persecution in Iraq.
WATCH: ACLU Executive Director Anthony D. Romero coming out of the court where the ACLU just argued and won block of Trump’s Muslim ban. pic.twitter.com/kvWDgWiUIn
— @ACLU
An email from Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s director of communications Kate Purchase late Saturday indicated Trump’s National Security Adviser Michael Flynn had provided assurances that Canadian passport holders, including dual citizens, would not be affected.
Dividing British MP’s family
However, British MP Nadhim Zahawi said lawyers have advised him that he will not be able to enter the U.S. under the ban. Zahwai, who was born in Baghdad and has been a member of the British parliament since 2010, described the impact on him and his family as “demeaning.” On Sunday, he said he feels discriminated against “for the first time in my life.”
Conservative MP Nadhim Zahawi, right, is seen on Oct. 5, 2010, with then-British prime minister David Cameron at a party gathering in Birmingham, England. He says Donald Trump’s ban on him entering the U.S. is ‘demeaning’ and ‘sad.’ (Peter Macdiarmid/Getty Images)
He told local television his sons studying in the U.S. would not be able to visit Britain without facing a 90-day delay in returning to their studies.
An Iranian woman living in Scotland, Hamaseh Tayari, was stranded in Costa Rica in the wake of the ban, unable to board her scheduled flight home because it stopped in New York. She was seeking an alternative route with help from funds raised by a crowdfunding campaign.
Update: petition to Prevent Trump from Visiting UK Reaches triple # req’d for parl debate. @CBCAlerts @cbcnews https://t.co/IRwHefSIMz
On online petition asking that Trump be prevented from making a state visit to the U.K. has collected more than 320,000 signatures.
The British parliament considers all petitions that get more than 100,000 signatures.
U.K., German leaders respond
European leaders are starting to speak out against the Trump administration’s travel ban. A spokesman for Chancellor Angela Merkel says the German leader believes the ban is wrong.
Germany’s dpa news agency quoted Merkel’s spokesman Steffen Seibert saying Sunday that “she is convinced that even the necessary, resolute fight against terrorism doesn’t justify putting people of a particular origin or particular faith under general suspicion.”
A woman greets her mother after she arrived from Dubai on Emirates Flight 203 at John F. Kennedy International Airport in Queens, N.Y. (Andrew Kelly/Reuters)
Merkel and Trump spoke by phone Saturday for the first time since his inauguration. A joint U.S.-German statement following the call made no mention of the topic of refugees or travel bans.
British Prime Minister Theresa May has criticized Trump’s order temporarily banning refugees from entering the United States.
Her official spokesman said Sunday that May does “not agree” with Trump’s order and will challenge the U.S. government if it has an adverse effect on British nationals.
At the Los Angeles International Airport, Homa Homaei, a U.S. Citizen from Iran, is hugged by a lawyer working to help her Iranian family members affected by the travel ban. (Patrick T. Fallon/Reuters)
The official comment came after May refused to condemn the ban during a visit to Turkey to meet with Turkish leaders. She said in Turkey the decision was a matter solely for the United States.
After she returned to Britain from a whirlwind visit to Washington, where she met Trump at the White House, and Turkey, her spokesman said Britain did not approve of Trump’s policy.
The British government is studying the order to gauge its impact on British nationals.