Trump's visa order is already being challenged in court

President Trump
(Image credit: Pool/Getty Images)

Just one day after President Trump signed an executive order that bans U.S. entry from Iran, Iraq, Syria, Sudan, Libya, Yemen, and Somalia for 90 days while suspending the U.S. Refugee Admissions Program for 120 days, the rule already faces partial challenge in court.

Immigration lawyers acting on behalf of two Iraqi men — Hameed Khalid Darweesh, 53, a former U.S. Army employee and Haider Sameer Abdulkhaleq Alshawi, 33, who is married to a former U.S. security contractor — have filed suit to limit the order. The men had valid visas to enter the United States, but Trump signed the executive order while both were in transit to John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York City. On arrival Friday evening, both were detained at the airport.

The lawsuit calls for their release and the legal protection of other people with legitimate travel papers who may now be in similar situations in airports around the country. Darweesh and Alshawi's "continued unlawful detention is part of a widespread pattern applied to many refugees and arriving aliens detained after the issuance of the January 27, 2017 executive order," the suit alleges.

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Bonnie Kristian

Bonnie Kristian was a deputy editor and acting editor-in-chief of TheWeek.com. She is a columnist at Christianity Today and author of Untrustworthy: The Knowledge Crisis Breaking Our Brains, Polluting Our Politics, and Corrupting Christian Community (forthcoming 2022) and A Flexible Faith: Rethinking What It Means to Follow Jesus Today (2018). Her writing has also appeared at Time Magazine, CNN, USA Today, Newsweek, the Los Angeles Times, and The American Conservative, among other outlets.