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US airports on frontline as Trump immigration ban causes chaos and controversy
US airports on frontline as Trump immigration ban causes chaos and controversy
(about 2 hours later)
Donald Trump’s executive order to close America’s borders to refugees and immigrants from some Muslim-majority countries caused chaos on Saturday, as people who had flown to the US were held at airports and elsewhere others were barred from boarding planes.
Donald Trump’s executive order to close America’s borders to refugees and immigrants from some Muslim-majority countries caused chaos on Saturday, as people who had flown to the US were held at major airports while others were barred from boarding flights or were pulled off planes overseas.
As confusion reigned, a spokeswoman for the Department of Homeland Security made a striking admission when she told Reuters people holding so-called green cards, making them legal permanent US residents, were included in the ban.
By Saturday night, there were 11 people in detention at New York’s John F Kennedy airport who had arrived from Iraq and other barred countries, according to two members of Congress, Jerry Nadler and Nydia Velazquez, who joined protests at the airport.
Pre-approved refugees, students and workers holding visas and residency green cards were also barred from flights to the US, according to reports emerging from Amsterdam, Frankfurt and Cairo and other cities across Europe, the Middle East and Africa.
As confusion reigned, a spokeswoman for the Department of Homeland Security confirmed to Reuters that people with green cards, making them legal permanent US residents, were included in the ban.
“It will bar green card holders,” wrote Gillian Christensen, acting DHS spokeswoman, in an email.
“It will bar green card holders,” wrote Gillian Christensen, acting DHS spokeswoman, in an email.
The order, signed on Friday in Washington, temporarily banned refugees from around the world from entering the US, blocked Syrian refugees indefinitely and placed severe restrictions on immigration from seven predominantly Muslim countries – Iraq, Syria, Iran, Yemen, Sudan, Libya and Somalia.
Trump’s executive order, signed on Friday in Washington, temporarily banned refugees from around the world, blocked Syrian refugees indefinitely and halted entry for people from seven predominantly Muslim countries: Iraq, Syria, Iran, Yemen, Sudan, Libya and Somalia.
A state department spokesman confirmed to the Guardian that travellers from the named countries who have dual nationality will not be able to enter the US for 90 days. Members of religious minorities from those countries, however, will be granted immigration priority.
A state department spokesman confirmed to the Guardian that travellers who have dual nationality between a country on the list and another non-US country, for instance UK-Iraqi or Canadian-Somali citizenship,are barred from entering the US for 90 days.
Political reaction to the order ranged across the partisan divide. On Friday, Democratic Senate minority leader Chuck Schumer said: “Tears are running down the cheeks of the Statue of Liberty tonight as a grand tradition of America, welcoming immigrants, that has existed since America was founded, has been stomped upon.”
In New York, two Iraqi refugees were detained at the airport. One, Hameed Khalid Darweesh, had worked in Iraq for the US government for 10 years. The other, Haider Sameer Abdulkhaleq Alshawi, was coming to the US to join his wife who had worked for a US contractor.
Republican House speaker Paul Ryan countered: “Our No 1 responsibility is to protect the homeland. I support the refugee resettlement program, but ... President Trump is right to make sure we are doing everything possible to know exactly who is entering our country.”
The congressman told the Guardian that anyone who is detained at an airport should “not sign anything and ask for a lawyer”.
As Trump spoke by phone to the leaders of Japan, France, Germany and Russia on Saturday, international reaction to the ban was largely negative.
“Donald Trump should revoke the executive order,” he said. “It’s unconstitutional on the grounds of religious discrimination.”
British prime minister Theresa May, however, ducked a series of questions at a press conference with the Turkish prime minister, 24 hours after meeting Trump in Washington. Asked several times what she thought of Trump’s order, she finally replied: “The United States is responsible for the United States’ policy on refugees.”
The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) and other groups filed a lawsuit challenging the detention of the two Iraqi men, and Darweesh was allowed to enter the US on Saturday afternoon. He spoke before around 100 protesters outside Terminal Four at JFK, and shouted: “No hate, No war, refugees are welcome here.”
The Iranian foreign ministry said in a statement the executive order was an “open affront against the Muslim world and the Iranian nation”. Iran will “take appropriate consular, legal and political measures” in response, it said.
Darweesh told the Guardian that he felt no ill will toward airport authorities. “They are good people. They are just doing their duty.”
“Instead of countering terrorism and protecting American people, these measures will be written in history as a gift to extremists and their supporters.”
Becca Heller, executive director of the International Refugee Assistance Project, said “dozens remain detained” around the US amid the confusion between local authorities, federal agencies, attorneys and the White House. “Nobody knows at this point.”
In New York City, two Iraqi refugees who arrived on separate flights were detained at John F Kennedy airport. One, Hameed Khalid Darweesh, had worked in Iraq for the US government for 10 years. The other, Haider Sameer Abdulkhaleq Alshawi, was coming to the US to join his wife who had worked for a US contractor, according to a report in the New York Times.
Mark Doss, an attorney for IRAP, told the New York Times that a border agent directed him to the White House with his complaint: “Mr President, call Mr Trump.”
Mark Doss, an attorney at the International Refugee Assistance Project (IRAP), told the Times he asked border agents who he needed to talk to about the men and was told: “Mr President, call Mr Trump.”
Thanu Yakupitiyage, a spokeswoman for the New York Immigration Coalition (NYIC), told the Guardian: “This is absolutely dehumanizing, I am livid, it’s outrageous. We are sending someone to JFK airport to speak to customs and border control about this, people are in a state of shock.”
An immigration organisation in New York City said it was dispatching an expert to the airport to try to establish how many people were being held in limbo as border agents began preventing Muslims in particular from entering the country.
Overseas, airport officials appeared to err on the side of blocking passengers from listed countries. It was reported, for example, that seven people, being escorted by officials from the United Nations refugee agency, were prevented from boarding a flight from Egypt to New York after authorities at Cairo airport contacted their counterparts at JFK.Air Canada had reportedly advised people from the seven countries concerned not to board flights to the US, whether or not they held a green card.
Thanu Yakupitiyage, a spokeswoman for the New York Immigration Coalition (NYIC), told the Guardian: “This is absolutely dehumanising, I am livid, it’s outrageous. We are sending someone to JFK airport to speak to customs and border control about this, people are in a state of shock.”
Melanie Nezer, vice-president of HIAS, a US organization that helps to resettle refugees who had passed through the US’s difficultvetting process, said that 2,000 people scheduled to arrive next week were now stranded overseas.
The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) and other groups filed a lawsuit challenging the detention of the two Iraqi men. Omar Jadwat, director of the ACLU’s Immigrants’ Rights Project, said: “President Trump’s war on equality is already taking a terrible human toll. This ban cannot be allowed to continue.”
Mana Yegani, an immigration lawyer in Houston, said that she had heard of several people with Iranian passports who were barred from US-bound flights leaving Amsterdam and Frankfurt. A number of other passengers were removed by security personnel just before take-off from the European cities.
Darweesh was released. He spoke before around 100 protesters outside Terminal Four at JFK, who shouted: “No hate, No war, refugees are welcome here.” Darweesh said he had been well treated during his brief detention. “They are good people,” he told the Guardian. “They are just doing their duty.”
“The agents said specifically that they had word from the US that those passengers would not be allowed to travel,” Yegani said.
Two Democratic members of the US Congress, Jerrold Nadler and Nydia Velazquez, said 11 people were still held at the airport.
Yegani had also been passed details of a Sudanese woman, a Stanford University PhD student with a US green card, who flew into New York at 11pm on Friday and was detained and interrogated until about 5am on Saturday, when she was released.
Overseas and in the US, airport officials appeared to err on the side of caution,. It was reported, for example, that seven migrants, escorted by officials from the United Nations refugee agency, were prevented from boarding a flight to New York from Egypt after authorities at Cairo airport contacted their counterparts at JFK.
“The checked her social media accounts, went through her phone, asked her about her politics, it was very intimidating,” Yegani said. “This really undermines core American values and the US constitution. I would not be surprised if the legal challenges to this end up at the supreme court.”
Masih Alinejad, an Iranian journalist famous for advocating against the forced wearing of the hijab, lives in exile in the US.
Masih Alinejad, an Iranian journalist living in exile in the US, said that Trump’s orders threatened to strip people from their families and homes.
“The Islamic Republic has built a wall around many exiled journalists like us,” she told the Guardian. “We neither have the right to return to Iran, nor do we enjoy the privilege of seeing our parents.
“The Islamic Republic has built a wall around many exiled journalists like us,” she said. “We neither have the right to return to Iran, nor do we enjoy the privilege of seeing our parents.”
“Due to my isolation from my family and the obligation to embark on a new life in exile … there was only one factor that kept me connected to life: my son. Seven years into my life in exile, my son has grown up and he goes to university in the UK. … Trump has built a wall between me and my son. We are both in limbo. He cannot come and see me and nor can I go to the UK to visit him.
Alinejad said that the order now bars her from her son, a university student in the UK. “Trump has built a wall between me and my son. We are both in limbo. He cannot come and see me and nor can I go to the UK to visit him,” she said. “If I were to go and visit him, I would be deprived of the right to come back to the United States. It would be the end of my life in the United States.”
“If I were to go and visit him, I would be deprived of the right to come back to the United States. It would be end of my life in the United States.”
Alinejad said though the order from Trump cited the need to fight terrorism, she was neither a terrorist or a murderer.
“I am merely the victim of a repressive government like the Islamic Republic of Iran that has been stopping me from seeing my parents,” she said. “Yet, I have now become the victim of a repressive law that is hindering me from seeing my son.”
The Council on American-Islamic Relations (Cair) will file its own lawsuit against the order on Monday, arguing that it violates the constitution’s guarantee for religion and due process.
Ali Abdi, an Iranian with permanent residency in the US, wrote on Facebook:“I am an Iranian PhD student of anthropology in the US. I left New York on 22 January, two days after [Trump] was sworn in. Now in Dubai, waiting for the issuance of my visa to enter Afghanistan to carry out ethnographic research.”
Yakupitiyage, of the NYIC, said the order is a step toward a more “isolationist and cruel” United States. “We will be doing whatever we can with our legal partners to push back on this. It’s religious discrimination and this will not make America safer.”
He added: “The language of the racist executive order [Trump] just signed is ambiguous, but it is likely to prevent permanent residents like me from returning to the country where I am a student, where I have to defend my thesis.
She stressed that many refugees and managed to pass through the arduous, 18-24-month vetting system that was in place before the orders. “Many have waited years.”
“This is just one story among thousands.”
Yakupitiyage of the NYIC said: “This executive order makes the US isolationist and cruel. We will be doing whatever we can with our legal partners to push back on this. It’s religious discrimination and this will not make America safer.”
It was unclear exactly how many people were being barred from entering the US. Yakupitiyage said she had also heard of a case at Atlanta airport, in Georgia. An Iraqi journalist living in the US, Mohammed al-Rawi, posted on Facebook that his father had been turned away from a flight in Qatar bound for Los Angeles.
It was reported that Air Canada had advised people from the seven countries concerned not to board flights to the US, whether or not they held a green card.
The Council on American-Islamic Relations (Cair) will file its own lawsuit against the order on Monday, arguing that it violates the US constitution.
“These detentions appear to be targeting the Muslim community,” Cair national legal director Lena Masri told the Guardian. “We have particular concern for green card holders who are out of the country right now, about whether they are going to be allowed back in. This is clearly unconstitutional.”
Republican support for Trump’s action is not without exception. Former vice-president Dick Cheney, a staunch conservative, rejected such a ban in December.
Speaking on a radio show, he said: “I think this whole notion that somehow we can just say ‘no more Muslims’, just ban a whole religion, goes against everything we stand for and believe in.
“I mean, religious freedom has been a very important part of our history and where we came from.”
