A Los Angeles-based federal judge issued a temporary injunction Tuesday night related to President Donald Trump’s three-month travel ban, in the latest challenge to the rules affecting the entry of certain travelers and immigrants from seven Muslim-majority nations.
U.S. District Court Judge Andre Birotte Jr.’s order prohibits the removing, detaining or blocking the entry of any person from Iran, Iraq, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria and Yemen with a valid immigrant visa — something immigration attorneys say has been happening under Trump’s executive order that he signed on Friday.
It also prohibits the canceling of “validly obtained and issued immigrant visas.”
The emergency order was issued in response to a federal lawsuit filed Tuesday in the Central District of California involving some 240 Yemeni citizens who had fled their war-torn country for the African country of Djibouti, and were en route to the U.S.
Most were taken off planes from various locations and sent back to Djibouti. But nine were turned back after they arrived at Dulles International Airport in Virginia and signed forms withdrawing their immigrant visas, said attorney Julie A. Goldberg of Goldberg and Associates by phone from Djibouti, after her office filed the complaint.
The affected Yemeni citizens had either been approved to receive a green card or were U.S. citizen minor children, she said.
“I really think (the injunction’s) going to protect people from having their (immigrant) visas destroyed so they can be heard in a judicial court and I’m hoping if we can get an airline to actually follow the judicial order, that we can at least get them to the U.S., where they can be reunited with their families,” Goldberg said.
The U.S. Justice Department said in an emailed statement that it’s “reviewing the order” and “has no further comment” on the pending litigation.
Trump’s travel restrictions include blocking the entry of certain citizens of the seven countries for at least 90 days. On Saturday night, a federal judge in Brooklyn responded by issuing a stay that bars U.S. border agents from removing anyone in the U.S. with a valid visa from those countries.
An internal letter dated Friday by Edward J. Ramotowski, a deputy assistant secretary at the State Department, following the signing of Trump’s executive order, said he was provisionally revoking “all valid nonimmigrant and immigrant visas of nationals of Iraq, Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria and Yemen” subject to diplomatic and other exceptions — an action that appears to have far-reaching consequences for those who have yet to come to the U.S.
The State Department told Pro Publica in a statement Wednesday that they “provisionally revoked relevant visas as defined under the (executive order). Those visas are not valid for travel to the U.S. while the Executive Order is in place.”
White House spokesman Sean Spicer said Wednesday that those who already have their green cards will be allowed to enter and leave the U.S. as they please despite the ban.
Goldberg said many of the Yemeni immigrants involved in the lawsuit had waited 3, 5, 7 or 10 years to get their immigrant visas.
She added that they were now trying to find an airline that would “follow (Tuesday’s) court order” and allow the Yemini citizens to board a plane to the U.S.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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