PEOPLE DENIED ENTRY IN FIRST US TRAVEL BAN CAN REAPPLY

NEW YORK: Foreigners who were barred from entering the US during President Donald Trump’s first attempt to ban travel from seven Muslim-majority nations will get government help reapplying for visas under a lawsuit settlement.

Civil rights lawyers and the Trump administration on Thursday announced the deal during a conference call in federal court in Brooklyn, one scene of the legal battle over the treatment of hundreds of travellers who were processed at US airports over a chaotic weekend in January.

Under the terms of the settlement, the government agreed to notify an unspecified number of people overseas who were banned that they can reapply for visas with the help of a Department of Justice liaison for a threemonth period. In return, the plaintiffs said they would drop all their claims.

“We are pleased with the settlement and that this chapter in the fight is done,” said American Civil Liberties Union Attorney Lee Gerlent.

Gerlent said it’s unclear how many people will benefit from the settlement because the government has refused to disclose the total. A DOJ statement read, “Although this case has been moot since March, when the president rescinded the original executive order and issued a new one that does not restrict the entry of Iraqi nationals, the U.S. government has elected to settle this case on favorable terms.”

The ACLU, along with the National Immigration Law Center and the International Refugee Assistance Project, sued on behalf of two Iraqi nationals hit by the January 27 travel ban.