Lawyers with the American Civil Liberties Union and other legal organizations are slapping President Trump with a lawsuit after he signed an executive order Friday that temporarily bars refugees and immigrants from entering the U.S. — a move which already is placing some people in a tough position.
On Saturday, ACLU and other groups put in motion an effort to secure the release of two Iraqi refugees were detained at John F. Kennedy Airport late Friday by filing a writ of habeas corpus Saturday morning in the Eastern District of New York.
The lawyers also filed a motion for class certification to represent all those stuck at U.S. ports of entry following Trump’s executive orders.
“President Trump’s war on equality is already taking a terrible human toll. This ban cannot be allowed to continue,” said Omar Jadwat, director of the ACLU’s Immigrants’ Rights Project, in a statement.
The lawyers identified their clients as Hameed Khalid Darweesh, who has worked on behalf of the U.S. government in Iraq for the past decade; and Haider Sameer Abdulkhaleq Alshawi, who had made the trip to the U.S. to unite with wife, who worked as a U.S. contractor, and child. Both arrived in the U.S. on separate flights.
Darweesh, who began working as an interpreter for the U.S. Army following the invasion of Iraq in 2003, had twice been the targeted for helping the U.S. military, according to the filing.
New York Rep. Jerry Nadler, who paid a visit Saturday to JFK Airport, met with Customs and Border Protection officials and reported on Twitter that Darweesh had been released. He did not say whether Alshawi was also released.
The New York Times was the first to report the story.
It is unclear how many other refugees and immigrants have been detained at other airports and ports of entry since the executive order was signed.
The president signed two executive orders Friday, one which suspended issuing visas to seven Muslim-majority countries and barred refugees from entering the U.S. for 120 days in order to give the Trump administration time to evaluate its vetting process; it’s all a part of an effort to install what Trump called “extreme vetting” of immigrants.
A senior administration said the executive order includes an “undue hardship” exemption that will include certain people in transit, according to Reuters. The State Department is reportedly further fleshing out the details.
ACLU executive director Anthony Romero condemned Trump’s “extreme vetting” actions, saying it unfairly targets Muslims.
“‘Extreme vetting’ is just a euphemism for discriminating against Muslims,” said Romero Friday. “Identifying specific countries with Muslim majorities and carving out exceptions for minority religions flies in the face of the constitutional principle that bans the government from either favoring or discriminating against particular religions. Any effort to discriminate against Muslims and favor other religions runs afoul of the First Amendment.”
At least one report says migrants are already being stopped from coming to the U.S. Daily Mail reported that seven migrants, six from Iraq and one from Yemen, were barred from boarding a flight from Egypt to the U.S., according to Cairo airport officials.
The move to halt refugee entry, even from war-torn countries like Syria, has been criticized by rights groups as being cruel and discriminatory.
It was also reported Saturday that green card holders are also subject to the ban on immigration.
