Photo: Screenshot/NY1
A federal judge in New York has issued an emergency stay temporarily halting the removal of individuals detained after President Donald Trump issued an order to suspend entry of immigrants from seven countries.
Around 100 to 200 passengers reportedly including refugees, travelers with valid US visas or green card holders stuck at American airports in transit during or soon after President Donald Trump’s executive order would not be deported after the court stay.
U.S. District Court Judge Ann Donnelly ruled on Saturday in favor of a habeas corpus petition filed by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) on behalf of two Iraqi men who were detained at John F. Kennedy International Airport on Friday after the president signed his order.
In Alexandria, Virginia, U.S. District Judge Leonie Brinkema issued a temporary restraining order to stop for seven days the removal of any green-card holders being detained at Dulles International Airport and ordered lawyers be given access to the detained individuals.
The Trump Administration’s executive order suspends refugee program and bars people from seven countries including Iran, Iraq, Syria, Libya, Somalia, Sudan and Yemen from entering the United States for 90 days.
President Trump has said the executive order is not a ban on Muslim countries, and is part of efforts to keep ISIS terrorists out of the United States.
“It’s not a Muslim ban, but we are totally prepared,” Trump said.
“It’s working out very nicely. You see it in the airports, you see it all over. It’s working out very nicely and we are going to have a very, very strict ban and we are going to have extreme vetting, which we should have had in this country for many years,” the president added.
While ruling on the petition, Judge Donnelly ruled in the Eastern District of New York that “there is imminent danger that, absent the stay of removal, there will be substantial and irreparable injury to refugees, visa-holders, and other individuals from nations subject” to Trump’s order.
“There is imminent danger that, absent the stay of removal, there will be substantial and irreparable injury to refugees, visa holders, and other individuals from nations subject to the January 27, 2017 executive order,” Judge Donnelly said.
“This ruling preserves the status quo and ensures that people who have been granted permission to be in this country are not illegally removed off U.S. soil,” Lee Gelernt, deputy director of the ACLU’s Immigrants’ Rights Project, said.
The federal judge’s ruling deals with a portion of Trump’s order handed down Friday, which bars Syrian refugees indefinitely and halts the resettlement of all refugees for four months as the administration reviews the vetting process.
Meanwhile, Scores of people protested the detention of individuals at aiports in New York’s JFK Airport and Washington’s Dulles airport.
According to a spokesperson of the Department of Homeland Security, the immigration order would apply to green card holders from the seven impacted countries.
Meanwhile, according to The Washington Post on Sunday, the Department of Homeland Security said the US would implement the presidential executive order.
“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,” the statement said.
“No foreign national in a foreign land, without ties to the United States, has any unfettered right to demand entry into the United States or to demand immigration benefits in the United States.”
