A federal judge has blocked part of President Donald Trump’s executive order barring refugees and other foreign-born travelers from entering the country.
The decision came as airports around the country - including Atlanta’s Hartsfield Jackson International Airport - detained travelers amid widespread confusion about what the order actually meant.
Judge Ann Donnelly of the U.S. District Court in Brooklyn on Saturday night granted a request from the American Civil Liberties Union to stay deportations of those detained after entering the United States in the aftermath of Trump’s order.
In Atlanta, at least five metro Atlanta residents returning home from visits to family in Iran were held for hours by federal immigration authorities as a result of the order Trump’s signed late Friday. It bars all refugees and citizens of seven Muslim countries from entering the country.
Four Georgians with green cards were eventually released, including a woman from Alpharetta and a family from Suwanee. But a relatives said a 76-year-old woman is also still being detained at Hartsfield.
Trump’s order had also placed in limbo 40 Atlanta-bound refugees who were already in transit when Trump signed the order.
Trump’s executive order suspends all refugees from entering the U.S. for 120 days, and bars those from war-torn Syria indefinitely. It also blocks entry to citizens from seven predominantly Muslim nations for 90 days.
Stay tuned for updates
