JUDGE EXTENDS DEPORTATION STAY
new york — A US federal judge has extended until February 21 a stay on visa holders from seven Muslim majority countries and refugees being deported under President Donald Trump’s travel ban.
Judge Carol Bagley Amon took the decision at a hearing in New York, saying that she did not want to leave the issue in limbo given that the stay — ordered last Saturday — was set to expire on February 11.
The travel restrictions ban all refugees from entering the United States for at least 120 days and visa holders from seven Muslim majority countries from arriving in the country for 90 days.
Lawyers for the US justice department told the federal court in Brooklyn on Thursday that they planned to file a motion to dismiss the case and said no one was currently in detention. Counsel representing rights groups said they were still waiting for final confirmation that no one was being detained, and said that some travelers had been deported despite the stay.
They called for a complete list of all those detained since the executive order came into effect last Friday so that they could ask everyone deported whether they wanted representation or to return.
New York’s Democratic Party state attorney general Eric Schneiderman has intervened in the legislation, to which the justice department lawyers said they neither consented or opposed.
Meanwhile, a district judge in Detroit has issued an order temporarily restraining the Trump administration from carrying out immigration restrictions in a presidential executive order, according to a court document.
Judge Victoria Roberts issued the order in response to a motion filed with the US District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan seeking a permanent injunction “that prohibits the denial of entry into the US of legal permanent residents and those with valid immigrant visas” under President Donald Trump’s January 27 order. —
I have no doubt that for all of us this is still the highest political priority, to protect our relationship with the United States against its enemies.