PANDEMONIUM OVER TRUMP BAN
Scores left high and dry in airports Original order’s focus changed
PRESIDENT Donald Trump’s order to restrict people from seven Muslim-majority countries from entering the United States sparked confusion and anger on Saturday after immigrants and refugees were kept off flights and left stranded in airports.
In his most sweeping decision since taking office a week ago, Trump, a Republican, put a four-month hold on allowing refugees into the United States and temporarily barred travellers from Syria and six other countries.
Civil rights and faith groups, activists and Democratic politicians were furious and vowed to fight the order.
Capping a day of confusion and chaos and protests in several airports across the country, a federal judge in Brooklyn, New York, granted a temporary reprieve. The American Civil Liberties Union successfully argued for a temporary stay that allowed detained travellers to stay in the United States.
Supporters outside the Brooklyn courtroom and at protests at airports in Dallas, Chicago, New York and elsewhere cheered the decision, but a bigger fight lay ahead.
The court action does not reverse Trump’s order, which was criticised by some of America’s closest allies.
Trump, a businessman who successfully tapped into American fears about terror attacks during his campaign, had promised what he called “extreme vetting” of immigrants and refugees from areas the White House said the US Congress deemed to be high risk.
He told reporters in the White House’s Oval Office on Saturday that his order was “not a Muslim ban” and said the measures were long overdue.
“It’s working out very nicely. You see it at the airports, you see it all over,” Trump said.
Along with Syria, the ban affects travelers with passports from Iran, Iraq, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria and Yemen.
The Department of Homeland Security said about 375 travelers had been affected by the order, 109 of whom were in transit and were denied entry to the United States. Another 173 were stopped by airlines before boarding.
The order “affects a minor portion of international travellers,” the department said in a statement, and the measures “inconvenienced” less than 1% of travellers.
The new rules blindsided people in transit and families waiting for them, and caused havoc for businesses with employees holding passports from the targeted nations and colleges with international students.
Several Democratic governors said they were examining whether they could launch legal challenges, and other groups eyed a constitutional challenge claiming religious discrimination.
“I don’t think anyone is going to take this lying down,” said Cleveland immigration lawyer David Leopold. “This is the tip of the spear and more litigation is coming.”
The White House did not respond immediately to a request for comment.
The Department of Homeland Security said the order would stay in place.
“No foreign national in a foreign land, without ties to the United States, has any unfettered right to demand entry into the United States,” the department statement said.
Confusion abounded at airports as immigration DONALD Trump originally dubbed his executive order suspending refugee arrivals and barring visas for travellers from seven Muslim-majority countries a “Muslim ban”, according to the US president’s aide Rudy Giuliani.
“When he first announced it he said, ‘Muslim ban’,” the former New York mayor said when asked whether the ban was connected to religion.
“Show me the right way to do it legally,” Giuliani – who Trump has tapped as his cyber security guru – said the US president told him.
The 72-year-old said he and a team of legal experts “focused on – instead of religion – danger!” when they drafted the immigration crackdown that has sparked a global outcry and mass protests.
Giuliani said those predominately Muslim countries were targeted because they were “the areas of the world that create danger for us. Which is a factual basis, not a religious basis”.
Meanwhile, a group of state attorneys general are discussing whether to file their own court challenge against Trump’s order to restrict people from seven Muslim-majority countries entering the United States.
Officials in the offices of attorneys general in Pennsylvania, Washington and Hawaii said they were evaluating what specific claims could be filed, and in which court.
“We do believe the executive order is unconstitutional,” Hawaii attorney general Douglas Chin said. — AFP-Reuters