U.S. President Donald Trump responded Saturday after a federal judge temporarily blocked his executive order banning travel to the U.S. from several Middle Eastern countries, calling the ruling “ridiculous” and vowing to have it overturned.
A U.S. federal judge in the northwestern state of Washington ruled on Friday to temporarily halt the Trump directive, which would indefinitely block the settlement of Syrian refugees in the U.S. and temporarily block entry to the U.S. for citizens of seven majority-Muslim nations the federal government has designated as posing an elevated risk of terrorism.
The U.S. Customs and Border Protection has since said travelers with a valid visa will now be allowed entry into the country.
An official with the U.S. State Department confirmed to VOA on Saturday that people with valid visas will be allowed into the U.S. and said the agency will release more information as soon as possible.
“We have reversed the provisional revocation of visas under Executive Order 13769. Those individuals with visas that were not physically cancelled may now travel if the visa is otherwise valid,” the official said. “We are working closely with the Department of Homeland Security and our legal teams.”
FILE – International travelers wait in line at a U.S. Customs and Border Protection checkpoint after arriving at Miami International Airport on March 4, 2015, in Miami, Florida. U.S. officials said on Saturday they would cease flagging travelers from certain countries targeted by the Trump executive order.
The Homeland Security Department, in compliance with the judge’s order, said Saturday it would cease flagging travelers from certain countries targeted by the Trump executive order.
The White House issued a statement shortly after the ruling to say that the Justice Department “at the earliest possible time” will file “an emergency stay of this outrageous order.” Shortly after, the White House issued a second statement without the word “outrageous.”
The statement also defended President Donald Trump’s executive order as “lawful and appropriate.”
Trump also tweeted on Saturday morning to say America will be in “big trouble” if the country is “no longer able to say who can, and who cannot” enter its borders.
Worldwide protests
Thousands of people in countries around the world took to the streets Saturday to protest the Trump executive order.
People listen to speakers during a rally at the end of a protest march in London against U.S. President Donald Trump’s ban on travelers and immigrants from seven predominantly Muslim countries entering the U.S., Feb. 4, 2017.
In London, a group of several thousand people gathered outside the U.S. embassy holding signs and chanting anti-Trump slogans. The protest was organized by several anti-racism and Muslim advocacy groups. Later in the day, protesters plan to march from the embassy in Grosvenor Square to Downing Street.
In Australia, about 1,000 people rallied in the eastern city of Sydney to protest the executive order and call on Australian leaders to close the country’s off-shore refugee processing centers.
A small group of about 30 activists gathered outside the U.S. embassy in Indonesia to protest the travel ban, as well.
Another protest is planned at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate on Saturday night. A Facebook post for the event says about 1,500 people will attend. Protests are also planned in the U.S. cities of Philadelphia and New York.
Protesters gather at Brooklyn Borough Hall to protest President Donald Trump’s immigration order, Feb. 2, 2017, in New York. More protests are scheduled.
States sue Trump
U.S. District Judge James Robart in Seattle ruled Friday that the states of Washington and Minnesota have legal standing to challenge President Trump’s executive order.
The Washington state government filed the legal challenge earlier this week, and Minnesota quickly joined the lawsuit. The two states have won a restraining order while the court considers the lawsuit.
“The Constitution prevailed today,” Washington Attorney General Bob Ferguson told reporters Friday. He said the ruling immediately halts what he called “President Trump’s unconstitutional and unlawful executive order.”
“The law is a powerful thing,” he continued. “It has the ability to hold everybody accountable to it, and that includes the president of the United States.”
A spokeswoman for the Department of Homeland Security said DHS does not comment on pending cases.
The U.S. State Department was informed late Friday by the Justice Department of the state court ruling, according to an agency spokesperson.
Washington Attorney General Bob Ferguson talks to reporters Feb. 3, 2017, following a hearing in federal court in Seattle. A U.S. judge on Friday temporarily blocked President Donald Trump’s ban on people from seven predominantly Muslim countries.
The State Department says fewer than 60,000 visas have been provisionally canceled as a result of President Trump’s executive order banning travel from seven countries.
The number conflicts with one released earlier by Department of Justice (DOJ) lawyers, who said more than 100,000 visas were revoked after the people they were issued to were blocked from traveling to the U.S.
The State Department said the higher figure included diplomatic and other visas that were exempted from the ban.
Trump’s order bans visa holders from Iran, Iraq, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria and Yemen. He says the measure is necessary to protect the safety of the American people from terrorists.
Deportation stay
The 100,000 number was revealed during a federal court hearing Friday in Alexandria, Virginia, in a case brought by two Yemeni brothers who arrived at nearby Dulles airport last Saturday. The brothers say they were forced to give up their legal resident visas and returned to Ethiopia.
During the course of the proceeding, the DOJ lawyers said they did not know how many people have been sent home as a result of the ban but that green card holders have been allowed entry to the U.S.
Judge Leonie Brinkema commended the government for trying to bring Tareq and Ammar Aqel Mohammed Aziz back to the U.S. She also encouraged the government to consider how it might resolve such cases more broadly.
“I have been on this bench a long time. … I have never seen such a public outpouring before,” Brinkema said, adding that this order “touched something” in people like she had never seen before. Brinkema previously presided over the case of September 11, 2001 terrorist attack conspirator Zacharia Moussaoui, another case that sparked considerable interest.
Brinkema extended her stay on deportations for another week, having also agreed to hear a lawsuit brought by the state of Virginia that questions the constitutionality of the travel ban.
Thursday, a federal judge in Brooklyn, New York, stayed deportations until February 21. Numerous other cases around the country are contesting the legality of the travel order.
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