Refugees previously authorized to enter the United States were detained upon arrival Friday after President Trump issued an executive order Friday banning entry to foreign nationals from seven Middle Eastern countries.
The repercussions of Mr. Trump’s sweeping mandate became apparent immediately after it went into effect Friday when reports emerged of refugees, green card holders and foreign nationals with otherwise valid visas suddenly finding themselves unable to enter the U.S.
Two Iraqi refugees were taken into custody upon landing at John F. Kennedy International Airport late Friday and denied entry after Mr. Trump authorized the executive order while they were in the air, the New York Times reported. One of the individuals detained, Hameed Khalid Darweesh, worked for the U.S. government in Iraq for a decade prior to being granted a special immigrant visa last week on Jan. 20, the day of Mr. Trump’s inauguration, according to the Times.
Another half-dozen refugees were affected by the order when they were stopped by authorities in Cairo on Friday and told they could no longer board their scheduled EgyptAir flight to JFK, including a Yemeni national and five Iraqis who had arrived in transit from Erbil, Reuters reported. The six migrants were being escorted by officials from the United Nations’ refugee agency when they were denied boarding, according to the news wire.
Los Angeles County employee and former Los Angeles Times technologist Mohammed Al Rawi publicized his father’s plight in a Facebook post Friday evening not long after Mr. Trump’s order took effect immediately upon being signed.
“My 69 year old dad is in Qatar boarding LAX flight to come visit us and and he’s being sent back to Iraq. Some U.S. official told him that Trump canceled all visas,” he wrote.
The American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee, a grassroots civil rights organization (ADC), said it received multiple reports Friday evening from green card and visa holders being denied boarding and admission into the U.S., and issued a statement advising foreign nationals in the U.S. from either of the seven affected countries to refrain from traveling abroad.
“You will not be allowed to re-enter the country,” ADC said in a statement, which accused the Trump administration of “manipulating current immigration mechanisms to authorize mass blanket discrimination against entire populations based on national origin, religion and/or ethnicity.”
“Denying thousands of the most persecuted refugees the chance to reach safety is an irresponsible and dangerous move that undermines American values and imperils our foreign relations and national security,” the International Refugee Assistance Project said in a statement of its own in response to Mr. Trump’s order.
The Council on American-Islamic Relations filed a lawsuit Friday challenging the constitutionality of Mr. Trump’s order within moments of it taking effect, and the American Civil Liberties Union other group similarly took immediate legal action with respect to the two Iraqi refugees being held in New York.
Mr. Trump’s mandate, titled “Protecting the Nation From Foreign Terrorist Entry Into the United States,” initiates a four-month pause on accepting refugees, and temporarily bars admission to travelers from seven Muslim-majority countries: Iran, Iraq, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria and Yemen
“I’m establishing new vetting measures to keep radical Islamic terrorists out of the United States of America. Don’t want them here,” Mr. Trump said Friday.
• Andrew Blake can be reached at ablake@washingtontimes.com.
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