Washington: US President Trumps executive order closing the nations borders to refugees was put into immediate effect as those who were in the air on the way to the country were stopped and detained at airports, a newspaper reported.
The detentions prompted legal challenges as lawyers representing two Iraqi refugees held at Kennedy Airport filed a writ of habeas corpus early Saturday in New York seeking to have their clients released, the New York Times reported. At the same time, they filed a motion for class certification, in an effort to represent all refugees and immigrants who they said were being unlawfully detained at ports of entry, said the report.
Trump’s order, which suspends entry of all refugees to the US for 120 days, created a legal limbo for individuals on the way to the United States and panic for families who were awaiting their arrival.
His order also stops the admission of refugees from Syria indefinitely, and it bars entry into the US for 90 days from seven predominantly Muslim countries linked to concerns about terrorism. Those countries are Iraq, Syria, Iran, Sudan, Libya, Somalia and Yemen.
According to the report, it was unclear how many refugees and immigrants were being held nationwide in the aftermath of the executive order.–IANS
