Judge stops deportation of nationals included in Trump executive order

A US District judge issued a ruling granting temporary emergency stay to two Iraqis detained at JFK airport. 

Shortly after President Donald Trump gave an executive order barring nationals from seven Muslim countries from entering the country, federal Judge Ann M. Donnelly of the Eastern District of New York issued a ruling temporarily preventing the deportation of individuals with authorization to be in the US.

Donnelly made her ruling on a case in which the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) filed a habeas corpus petition on behalf of two Iraqis who were detained at John F. Kennedy International Airport over the weekend shortly after Trump signed the executive order.

The executive order provided exceptions only to those with diplomatic visas, such as “North Atlantic Treaty Organization visas, C-2 visas for travel to the United Nations and G-1, G-2, G-3, and G-4 visas.”

After finding that the two Iraqi plaintiffs – Hameed Khalid Darweesh, who worked as an interpreter for the US military, and Haider Alshawi ,who was employed for a US contractor in Iraq – could very likely demonstrate that being deported “violates their rights to Due Process and Equal Protection guaranteed by the United States Constitution,” Judge Donnelly held that “pending completion of a hearing before the Court on the merits of the Petition, that the Respondents be enjoined and restrained from the commission of further acts and misconduct in violation of the Constitution.”

Furthermore, security agencies are to be “enjoined an restrained from, in any manner or by any means, removing individuals with refugee applications approved by U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services as part of the US Refugee Admissions Program, holders of valid immigrant and non-immigrant visas, and other individuals” from any of the seven countries that have legal authorization to enter the US.

Several similar rulings were issued by federal judges in Virginia, Massachusetts and Washington.

By: Jonathan Benedek, World Israel News