NEW YORK ― Late Saturday, a federal judge in Brooklyn temporarily halted parts of …
NEW YORK ― Late Saturday night, a federal judge in Brooklyn
temporarily halted parts of President
Donald Trump’s
sweeping executive order
that aimed to block the entry of Syrian refugees and impose a de facto
ban on travelers coming from several Muslim-majority countries.
The American Civil Liberties Union, immigrants’ rights groups and refugee relief organizations
had filed the action
in federal court Saturday morning on behalf of two Iraqi nationals who
were detained at John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York City,
asking for a declaration that the order is unconstitutional and
requesting an injunction to prevent its implementation against other
travelers who may be equally harmed.
“The petitioners have a
strong likelihood of success in establishing that the removal of the
petitioners and others similarly situated violates the rights to Due
Process and Equal Protection guaranteed by the United States
Constitution,” U.S. District Judge Ann Donnelly of the Eastern District
of New York wrote in her
order.
The legal action named Trump
in his official capacity as president, as well as the Department of
Homeland Security and other high-ranking officials. Although temporary
and subject to appeal, it represents the first major constitutional
setback faced by the new administration.
“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,” said Lee
Gelernt, the ACLU lawyer who was in court Saturday arguing the case, in a
statement.
The immediate reading of
Donnelly’s order left several interpretations, but the nationwide stay
specifically forbids the federal government from deporting refugees who
have been cleared by immigration authorities to enter the country. It
also protects “holders of valid immigrant and non-immigrant visas, and
other individuals from Iraq, Syria, Iran, Sudan, Libya, Somalia, and
Yemen, [who are] legally authorized to enter the United States.”
Because the Constitution
only applies territorially, that would mean the ruling covers those
travelers detained and stranded at airports and other ports of entry,
and possibly those who were stranded mid-travel but have authorization
to be in the United States.
The initial ambiguity of
Saturday’s ruling underscores the crazed process by which Trump’s
executive order was implemented and litigated ― all within a span of a
day. And it portends even more high-pitched court battles ahead,
including a likely trip to the Supreme Court, which is presently short
one member.
Earlier on Saturday, Trump told reporters at the White House that his executive order was “
working out very nicely.”
“You see it at the airports, you see it all over,” he said.
But hours after the court’s ruling, the Trump administration had yet to comment or tweet about it. The White House has been
under mounting scrutiny over how Trump’s slapdash travel ban ― which has
sown chaos and
sparked protests at airports across the country ― came to be.
One CNN report indicated that the White House
didn’t consult with the Office of Legal Counsel,
the Department of Justice component that advises the executive branch
on policy, prior to Trump’s signing of the order on Friday. And two of
Trump’s closest advisers, Steve Bannon and Stephen Miller,
reportedly overruled Department of Homeland Security officials who had concluded that the executive order shouldn’t bar
legal permanent residents from the affected countries from entering the U.S.
One of
the two Iraqis’ at the center of the legal action
against the travel ban, Hameed Khalid Darweesh, was released shortly
after noon on Saturday. The other man, Sameer Abdulkhaleq Alshawi, was
released moments after the court ruling.
In related developments
Saturday evening, federal judges in Virginia and Seattle issued orders
temporarily barring the deportation of travelers stranded in their
jurisdictions.
In Virginia, U.S. District
Judge Leonie Brinkema allowed between 50 and 60 legal permanent
residents detained at Washington Dulles International Airport to contact
lawyers and family members, and halted their deportations for seven
days. Federal authorities detained the travelers upon arrival because
they are citizens of the seven countries listed in Trump’s travel ban.
And in Seattle, U.S. District Judge Thomas Zilly
halted the deportation of
two travelers who had sought a declaration that their detentions were
illegal. The judge set a hearing for next week to determine the next
steps in the case.
Read the full ruling blocking parts of Trump’s executive order below:
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