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Trump Administration Says Green Card Holders Won’t Be Barred
Travelers Stranded and Protests Swell Over Trump Order
(about 4 hours later)
WASHINGTON — John F. Kelly, the secretary of the Department of Homeland Security, eased a key part of President Trump’s immigration order on Sunday, saying that people from the affected countries who hold green cards will not be prevented from returning to the United States.
WASHINGTON — Travelers were stranded around the world, protests escalated in the United States and anxiety rose within President Trump’s party on Sunday as his order closing the nation to refugees and people from certain predominantly Muslim countries provoked a crisis just days into his administration.
“In applying the provisions of the president’s executive order, I hereby deem the entry of lawful permanent residents to be in the national interest,” Mr. Kelly said in a statement. “Accordingly, absent the receipt of significant derogatory information indicating a serious threat to public safety and welfare, lawful permanent resident status will be a dispositive factor in our case-by-case determinations.”
The White House pulled back on part of Mr. Trump’s temporary ban on visitors from seven countries by saying that it would not apply to those with green cards granting them permanent residence in the United States. By the end of the day, the Department of Homeland Security formally issued an order declaring legal residents exempt from the order.
Even with his statement, much of the order was still being enforced, and travel was disrupted for many around the world. Thousands of protesters gathered for a second day at American airports and other public spaces amid uncertainty about whether federal officers were fully complying with court orders blocking the immediate deportation of some people arriving from affected countries and requiring that anyone detained be granted access to lawyers.
But the recalibration did little to reassure critics at home or abroad who saw the president’s order as a retreat from traditional American values. European leaders denounced the order, and some Republican lawmakers called on Mr. Trump to back down. It was not clear how many were still being detained at American airports or how many others were now blocked from getting on airplanes in the first place.
With thousands of protesters marching outside the White House and thronging the streets of Washington and other cities, Mr. Trump late Sunday defended his order. “To be clear, this is not a Muslim ban, as the media is falsely reporting,” he said in a written statement. “This is not about religion — this is about terror and keeping our country safe.”
More than any of the myriad moves Mr. Trump has made in his frenetic opening days in office, the immigration order has quickly come to define his emerging presidency as one driven by a desire for decisive action even at the expense of deliberate process or coalition building. It has thrust the nine-day-old administration into its first constitutional conflict, as multiple courts have intervened to block aspects of the order, and into its broadest diplomatic incident, with overseas allies objecting.
He noted that the seven countries singled out were identified by former President Barack Obama’s administration as sources of terrorism and that his order does not affect citizens from dozens of other predominantly Muslim countries. “We will again be issuing visas to all countries once we are sure we have reviewed and implemented the most secure policies over the next 90 days,” he said.
The White House was left to defend what seemed to many government veterans like a slapdash process. Aides to Mr. Trump insisted they had consulted for weeks with relevant officials, but the head of the customs and border service in the Obama administration, who resigned on inauguration day, said the incoming president’s team never talked with him about it.
As for Syria, whose refugees he has banned indefinitely, Mr. Trump said he was mindful of the suffering of victims of the long-running civil war. “I have tremendous feeling for the people involved in this horrific humanitarian crisis in Syria,” he said. “My first priority will always be to protect and serve our country, but as president I will find ways to help all those who are suffering.”
White House officials blamed what they portrayed as a hyperventilating news media for the confusion and said the order had been successfully carried out. Only about 109 out of 325,000 travelers entering the United States over 24 hours were detained, they said, and as of Sunday afternoon, all 170 legal permanent residents who applied for a waiver were granted one. That did not count the many others who remain overseas now unable to travel.
While Mr. Trump denied that his action was targeted against Muslims, just hours earlier he made clear on Twitter that he was concerned about Christian refugees. Part of his order gives preferential treatment to Christians who try to enter the United States from majority-Muslim countries.
Reince Priebus, the White House chief of staff, said Mr. Trump simply did what he had promised on the campaign trail and would not gamble with American lives. “We’re not willing to be wrong on this subject,” he said on “Face the Nation” on CBS. “President Trump is not willing to take chances on this subject.”
In his Twitter post on Sunday morning, Mr. Trump deplored the killing of Christians in the Middle East without noting the killings of Muslims, who have been killed in vastly greater numbers in Iraq, Syria and elsewhere.
The order bars entry to refugees from anywhere in the world for 120 days and from Syria indefinitely. It blocks any visitors for 90 days from seven designated countries: Iran, Iraq, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria and Yemen. The Department of Homeland Security initially said the order would bar green card holders from those seven countries from returning to the United States.
Mr. Trump asserted last week that Christians had been “treated horribly” under previous administrations. “If you were a Muslim, you could come in, but if you were a Christian, it was almost impossible,” he said Friday in an interview with the Christian Broadcasting Network. “I thought it was very, very unfair. So we are going to help them.”
With thousands of protesters chanting outside his White House windows and thronging the streets of Washington and other cities, Mr. Trump late on Sunday defended his order. “To be clear, this is not a Muslim ban, as the media is falsely reporting,” he said in a written statement. “This is not about religion — this is about terror and keeping our country safe.”
In a second Twitter message on Sunday, the president said that the United States needed strong borders and “extreme vetting” to protect itself from terrorists. He cited Europe and “indeed, the world” as evidence that the United States must shut its borders to potential threats.
He noted that the seven countries were identified by former President Barack Obama’s administration as sources of terrorism and that his order did not affect citizens from dozens of other predominantly Muslim countries. “We will again be issuing visas to all countries once we are sure we have reviewed and implemented the most secure policies over the next 90 days,” he said.
The president’s order, enacted with the stroke of a pen at 4:42 p.m. Eastern on Friday, suspended entry of all refugees to the United States for 120 days, barred Syrian refugees indefinitely and blocked entry into the United States for 90 days for citizens of seven predominantly Muslim countries: Iran, Iraq, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria and Yemen.
Mr. Trump expressed sympathy for victims of the long-running civil war in Syria. “I have tremendous feeling for the people involved in this horrific humanitarian crisis in Syria,” he said. “My first priority will always be to protect and serve our country, but as president, I will find ways to help all those who are suffering.”
A series of rulings by federal judges across the country blocked part of the president’s actions, preventing the government from deporting some travelers who found themselves ensnared by the presidential order. But the court decisions largely stopped short of letting them into the country or issuing a broader ruling on the constitutionality of Mr. Trump’s actions.
While Mr. Trump denied that his action focused on religion, the first iteration of his plan during his presidential campaign was framed as a temporary ban on all Muslim visitors.
Lawyers for those denied entry said on Sunday that there was significant confusion and disagreement among border agents about who was affected by Mr. Trump’s order.
As late as Sunday morning, he made clear that his concern was for Christian refugees, and part of his order gives preferential treatment to Christians who try to enter the United States from majority-Muslim nations.
In a statement Sunday morning, the Department of Homeland Security said that agents would “continue to enforce all of President Trump’s executive orders,” and that “prohibited travel will remain prohibited.” But it also said that the department “will comply with judicial orders.”
In a Twitter post on Sunday morning, Mr. Trump deplored the killing of Christians in the Middle East without noting the killings of Muslims, who have been killed in vastly greater numbers in Iraq, Syria and elsewhere.
The legal battles over the president’s order intensified as lawyers for those detained accused the government of failing to abide by the Saturday night rulings and said agents were refusing to allow them access to potential clients, in direct violation of those rulings.
“Christians in the Middle East have been executed in large numbers,” he wrote. “We cannot allow this horror to continue!”
On Saturday, Judge Leonie M. Brinkema of Federal District Court in Alexandria, Va., ordered government officials to “permit lawyers access to all legal permanent residents being detained at Dulles International Airport.” The ruling was one of at least four around the nation temporarily blocking aspects of Mr. Trump’s executive order.
His order, however, resulted in a second day of uncertainty at American airports. The American Civil Liberties Union said it was investigating reports that officials were not complying with court orders in New York, Boston, Seattle, Los Angeles and Chicago.
“We continue to face Border Patrol noncompliance and chaos,” said Marielena Hincapié, the executive director of the National Immigration Law Center.
New York’s attorney general sent a letter to federal authorities demanding a list of all individuals detained at Kennedy International Airport. The Department of Homeland Security said Sunday evening that it was “in compliance with judicial orders.”
Lawyers gathered on Sunday morning at Dulles International Airport said that border agents had told lawyers that they would not be permitted to see anyone who was being held. Sharifa Abbasi, 32, one of the lawyers, said a customs agent had told her that “upper management” had instructed agents at Dulles not to provide any information or access to lawyers at the airport.
Still, at Dulles International Airport outside Washington, even the arrival of four Democratic members of Congress did not prompt customs officers to acknowledge whether they were holding anyone or provide lawyers access to anyone detained.
By Sunday afternoon, lawyers at Dulles were considering seeking a contempt order from Judge Brinkema against the border agency.
The lawmakers arrived after 3 p.m. and were rebuffed by police officers when they tried to enter the Customs and Border Protection offices at the airport. Representative Gerry Connolly, Democrat of Virginia, said he was told to call the main office of the agency in Washington.
In New York, lawyers for the American Civil Liberties Union filed a request for clarification with the Brooklyn judge who had blocked part of the president’s order Saturday night.
His staff got a legislative liaison from the customs service on the phone, and “they said we’ll put you in touch with the deputy commissioner,” according to Mr. Connolly.
“Petitioners’ counsel have received repeated reports of individual members subject to the order who have been placed on planes, possibly deported,” the lawyers wrote in a motion to the court.
“I said that’s not acceptable,” he said. “We want to talk to the person in charge of operations at Dulles Airport. That’s where the problem is, and that’s where the federal judicial ruling is applicable.”
The confusion in enforcing the president’s order was particularly evident in the handling of those who have valid green cards, making them legal permanent residents of the United States.
The clash over the order provoked emotional responses. At a news conference, Senator Chuck Schumer, the Democratic minority leader from New York, choked up as he vowed to “claw, scrap and fight with every fiber of my being until these orders are overturned.”
On Saturday night, the Department of Homeland Security said that Mr. Trump’s order did apply to green card holders who were traveling to the United States from the seven countries affected.
The mayors of Dallas, Chicago and Boston spoke out as well. In Dallas, Mayor Mike Rawlings personally offered regrets to four released detainees at Dallas-Fort Worth Airport. “We have wished them welcome, and we have apologized from the depths of our heart,” he said.
White House officials reiterated that position in a briefing for reporters on Saturday afternoon, saying that green card holders from the seven countries would need a case-by-case waiver to return.
The order roiled relations with America’s traditional allies in Europe and the Middle East. The spokesman for Chancellor Angela Merkel of Germany, who spoke with Mr. Trump by telephone on Saturday, said she reminded him of the obligation of the United States to take refugees under the Geneva Conventions.
Reince Priebus, the White House chief of staff, appeared to change that position Sunday morning. “As far as green card holders, moving forward, it doesn’t affect them,” he said on NBC’s “Meet the Press” program.
Prime Minister Theresa May of Britain, who met with Mr. Trump in Washington on Friday and has sought to forge a friendship with him, initially declined to comment on the policy on Sunday when pressed by reporters during a stop in Turkey.
He defended Mr. Trump’s order, saying it had been carried out smoothly and was protecting Americans from terrorist threats. On Saturday, a day after the order was issued, airports were marked by scenes of confusion and protest as officials tried to interpret the order, including how to handle green card holders.
But under pressure from opposition politicians, her spokesman later said the British government did “not agree with this kind of approach.”
Around the globe on Saturday, legal residents of the United States who hold valid green cards and approved visas were blocked from boarding planes overseas or detained for hours in American airports.
The matter was especially sensitive in Muslim countries, and Mr. Trump spoke by telephone on Sunday with King Salman of Saudi Arabia and Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, the crown prince of Abu Dhabi. White House statements on the calls said they discussed the fight against terrorism but did not say whether they discussed the immigration order, which did not include their countries.
Mr. Priebus said several times during the NBC interview that green card holders would not be subject to the order “going forward.” But he repeatedly suggested that anyone, including American citizens, who traveled from any of the seven predominantly Muslim countries identified in the order would be subjected to additional scrutiny.
In Washington, protesters gathered by the thousands outside Mr. Trump’s front lawn to denounce his order and show solidarity with Muslim Americans.
“If you’re an American citizen traveling back and forth to Libya, you are likely to be subjected to further questioning when you come into an airport,” Mr. Priebus said. He added later, “There is discretionary authority that a customs and border patrol agent has when they suspect that someone is up to no good when they travel back and forth to Libya or Yemen.”
“Shame,” they chanted, hoisting homemade signs toward the executive mansion, where Mr. Trump was scheduled to host a private screening of the movie “Finding Dory.”
Mr. Priebus said that travelers from the seven countries would be “subjected, temporarily, with more questioning, until a better system is put in place.”
“No hate, no fear,” they added later. “Refugees are welcome here.”
Mr. Trump — in office just a week — has found himself accused of constitutional and legal overreach with his executive order. Large crowds of protesters turned out at airports around the country to denounce Mr. Trump’s ban.
Security fencing and reviewing stands still in place from inauguration day prevented the crowd from getting more than a couple hundred yards away from the building, but did not stop crowds from swelling through the afternoon, when protesters departed to march to Capitol Hill.
Lawyers who sued the government to block the White House order said the judge’s decision could affect an estimated 100 to 200 people who were detained upon arrival at American airports.
Some Republicans grew increasingly alarmed by the backlash to the order. “This executive order sends a signal, intended or not, that America does not want Muslims coming into our country,” Senators John McCain of Arizona and Lindsey Graham of South Carolina said in a statement. “That is why we fear this executive order may do more to help terrorist recruitment than improve our security.”
Judge Ann M. Donnelly of Federal District Court in Brooklyn, who was nominated by former President Barack Obama, ruled just before 9 p.m. Saturday that carrying out Mr. Trump’s order by sending the travelers home could cause them “irreparable harm.” She said the government was “enjoined and restrained from, in any manner and by any means, removing individuals” who had arrived in the United States with valid visas or refugee status.
Some conservative donors also criticized the decision. Officials with the political network overseen by Charles and David Koch, the billionaire conservative activists, released a statement on Sunday criticizing Mr. Trump’s handling of the issue.
The ruling does not appear to force the administration to let in people otherwise blocked by Mr. Trump’s order who have not yet traveled to the United States.
“We believe it is possible to keep Americans safe without excluding people who wish to come here to contribute and pursue a better life for their families,” said Brian Hooks, co-chairman of the Kochs’ donor network. “The travel ban is the wrong approach and will likely be counterproductive.”
The judge’s one-page ruling came swiftly after lawyers for the American Civil Liberties Union testified in her courtroom that one of the people detained at an airport was being put on a plane to be deported back to Syria at that very moment.
Senator Bob Corker, chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee, said the order was “poorly implemented” and urged the president to “make appropriate revisions.” Other Republicans were more circumspect. Senator Mitch McConnell, the Republican majority leader, said the issue would be decided by the courts.
Hundreds of people waited outside the courthouse chanting “Set them free!” as lawyers made their case. When the crowd learned that Judge Donnelly had ruled in favor of the plaintiffs, a rousing cheer went up in the crowd.
Mr. Trump fired back at Mr. McCain and Mr. Graham on Twitter. “They are sadly weak on immigration,” he wrote. “Senators should focus their energies on ISIS, illegal immigration and border security instead of always looking to start World War III.”
Minutes after the judge’s ruling in New York, another judge, Leonie M. Brinkema of Federal District Court in Virginia, issued a temporary restraining order for a week to block the removal of any green card holders being detained at Dulles International Airport.
Throughout the day on Saturday, there were numerous reports of students attending American universities who were blocked from returning to the United States from visits abroad. One student said in a Twitter post that he would be unable to study at Yale. Another who attends the Massachusetts Institute of Technology was refused permission to board a plane. A Sudanese graduate student at Stanford University was blocked for hours from entering the country.
Human rights groups reported that legal permanent residents of the United States who hold green cards were being stopped in foreign airports as they sought to return from funerals, vacations or study abroad.
The White House said the restrictions would protect “the United States from foreign nationals entering from countries compromised by terrorism” and allow the administration time to put in place “a more rigorous vetting process.” But critics condemned Mr. Trump over the collateral damage on people who had no sinister intentions in trying to come to the United States.
White House aides said on Saturday that there had been consultations with State Department and homeland security officials about carrying out the order. “Everyone who needed to know was informed,” one aide said.
But that assertion was denied by multiple officials with knowledge of the interactions, including two officials at the State Department. Leaders of Customs and Border Protection and of Citizenship and Immigration Services — the two agencies most directly affected by the order — were on a telephone briefing on the new policy even as Mr. Trump signed it on Friday, two officials said.
