WASHINGTON — A federal judge in Virginia issued a temporary restraining order Saturday barring the Department of Homeland Security from removing 50-60 individuals who are legal permanent residents.
Just minutes after a New York federal judge issued an emergency order temporarily barring the U.S. from deporting people from countries under President Donald Trump’s travel ban, U.S. District Judge Leonie Brinkema ordered that permanent legal residents detained at Dulles International Airport shall have access to lawyers and that U.S. immigration agencies are forbidden from removing them for seven days from the order’s issuance.
At Dulles, a crowd chanting, “No hate. No fear. Refugees are welcome here,” gathered to protest Trump’s travel ban.
Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe and Virginia Attorney General Mark Herring were at the airport Saturday. McAuliffe denounced Trump’s order to bar refugees from seven countries — Iraq, Iran, Sudan, Libya, Somalia, Yemen and Syria.
The order prevents citizens of these countries to enter the United States for 90 days, suspends the admission of all refugees for 120 days and suspends the Syrian refugee program indefinitely.
At a news conference, McAuliffe said the order was “discriminatory” and that it will “breed hatred toward Americans around the globe.” He said that he has asked Herring to look into “all legal remedies” to help people who may be detained.
Herring said that the message sent by Trump’s order is that people of Muslim faith are “somehow less because of their faith.” He said, “That is wrong. That is un-American.”
McAuliffe said that he was concerned about a family with children that was reportedly detained. He said that he wants to know if Virginia families have been affected by the ban.
See NBC Washington’s coverage of the news conference:
New Jersey Sen. Cory Booker arrived at the airport shortly after midnight Sunday to show his support for the protesters.
NJ Sen Cory Booker speaks to reporters at Dulles. Tells demonstrators to march, protest, not be silent pic.twitter.com/LXDzq04xIV — Darcy Spencer (@darcyspencer) January 29, 2017
Around the country, protesters gathered at airports to protest the travel ban. The Chicago Tribune reported that protesters gathered at O’Hare International Airport after more than a dozen travelers were detained. The Star Tribune reported some 100 people protesting at Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport although there were no reports of people detained there. In San Francisco, The Mercury New reported hundreds gathered at San Francisco International Airport as three travelers were detained.
And at Kennedy International Airport in New York, The New York Times reported that thousands protesters spread along the parking apron and on three floors of a parking deck shouting their protests.
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