A federal judge on Saturday issued a
partial halt on President Donald Trump's executive order on
immigration.
According to The
New York Times, Judge Ann M. Donnelly issued an order
blocking the government from removing individuals who had arrived in
the United States with a valid visa or who had refugee status.
Donnelly said that turning away these people could cause them
“irreparable harm.”
The president's order, signed Friday,
targets the Muslim community by barring Syrian refugees from entering
the United States indefinitely and blocking citizens from seven
predominantly Muslim nations for 90 days. Those countries are Iran,
Iraq, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria and Yemen. The order also blocks
entry of all refugees to the United States for 120 days.
As stories of people being detained at
airports around the nation surfaced, spontaneous protests against
Trump's order sprung up mostly at airports.
Donnelly's order temporarily blocks the
government from sending these people back to their country of origin.
It does not let them into the country. Donnelly also did not rule
on the constitutionality of Trump's order.
At John F. Kennedy Airport, where
eleven arrivals were being detained, demonstrators descended on
international terminals to stage a peaceful protest.
The Times described some of
those caught in the chaos as students returning from abroad, Syrian
families with legal paperwork and green card holders returning from
vacations.