NEW YORK / WASHING­TON: US federal judges have blocked deportations of Muslims detained at airports on entry to the United States while Virginia’s governor and the attorney general welcomed Muslim visitors at the capital’s main airport with flowers and balloons.

Welcoming crowds also gathered at more than a dozen international airports across the US to support those affected by President Donald Trump’s order that banned visitors from seven Muslim countries — Iran, Iraq, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria, and Yemen — from entering the US.

Meanwhile, President Trump’s Chief of Staff Reince Priebus told CBS News that the ban placed on seven Muslim countries may be expanded to include Pakistan.

Trump aide says Pakistan may be put on the list of countries under immigration ban

“The reason we chose those seven countries was, those were the seven countries that both the Congress and the Obama administration identified as being the seven countries that were most identifiable with dangerous terrorism taking place in their country,” Mr Priebus said.

“Now, you can point to other countries that have similar problems, like Pakistan and others. Perhaps we need to take it further,” he said.

The banning order currently applicable to the seven countries, issued on Friday, was challenged at several courts across the United States.

Despite the protests, 109 people were denied entry to the US on Saturday evening.

All of them had been in transit when President Trump signed the order. Some were deported before courts ordered the restraining orders while others were awaiting flights.

Also, 173 others were not allowed to board US-bound flights at various foreign airports.

A team of lawyers accompanied Governor Terry McAuliffe and Attorney General Mark Herring to Washington’s Dulles Inter­national Airport to provide pro bono legal assistance to those detained.

Judge Ann Donnelly of the District Court in Brooklyn, New York, granted a request from the American Civil Liberties Union (Aclu) to stop the deportations after determining that those detained could face injury if sent back.

In Alexandria, Virginia, District Judge Leonie Brinkema restrained for seven days the removal of any green-card holders being detained at Dulles. Judge Brinkema also ordered federal authorities to allow lawyer access to the detainees.

Aclu, which has launched a campaign against Mr Trump’s order, said it had succeeded in getting “a nationwide temporary injunction” that would block the deportation of all people stranded at US airports under the president’s new Muslim ban.

Several other groups have filed similar lawsuits. The first lawsuit was filed in New York on behalf of two Iraqi men who were en route to the US on immigrant visas when President Trump issued an executive order banning many Muslims from entering the country.

The men detained at the John F. Kennedy Airport, Hameed Khalid Darweesh and Sameer Abdulkhaleq Alshaw, had been granted entry, Aclu deputy legal director tweeted.

‘US – a beacon of hope’

Governor McAuliffe tweeted that he joined Attorney General Herring at the Dulles Airport on behalf of Virginia to urge President Trump to rescind his order and return the US to its place as a beacon of hope for all.

“The president’s decision to close our country to Muslim travellers and people seeking refuge from persecution is antithetical to the values that make America great and it will not make our country safer,” he said. “This is not the United States of America that we know. We here in Virginia are open and welcoming to everybody.”

“Telling Muslims in Virginia and around the country that they are inferior because of their faith; that is simply shameful,” he said.

Hundreds of protesters joined the governor to protest the ban, chanting: “Love, not hate, makes America great” and “Say it loud, say it clear, Muslims are welcome here.”

In Seattle, Washington, about 3,000 protested the ban at the Tacoma International Airport, chanting, “No hatred, no fear, immigrants are welcome here” and “Let them in.” The demonstration continued on Sunday morning.

More than 2,000 gathered at the John F. Kennedy Airport, where 12 refugees were detained on Saturday, shouting, “Let them, let them in.”

Airport authorities tried to control the crowd by shutting down the train that runs to airport terminals.

Initial list

Days ago Mr Trump suggested that Afghanistan and Pakistan may be included among the countries whose citizens need “extreme vetting” for entering the US. But he never indicated that Pakistan would be included among the countries whose citizens could be temporarily banned from entering the US.

Diplomatic sources in Washington say that the Trump administration had initially drawn a list of 11 countries for the ban, which included both Afghanistan and Pakistan. But later the list was shortened to seven on advice from US security officials.

Mr Priebus, however, acknowledged for the first time that Pakistan was under consideration to be put in this category of nations.

“We’re not going to advertise to the world that we’re going to put a stop or at least a further vetting on travel in and out of our country from these seven places,” he said.

“Some people have suggested, that, well, maybe we should have given everyone a three-day warning. But that would just mean that a terrorist would just move up their travel plans by three days.”

Defending the ban order, Mr Priebus said: “These are countries that harbour and train terrorists. These are countries that we want to know who is coming and going in and out of to prevent calamities from happening in this country.”

Right to protest

New York Governor Andrew Cuomo, a Democrat, said that people had a right to protest.

Thousands also gathered at the Newark Airport, New Jersey, at the Denver International Airport and at Chicago’s O’Hare International Airport where they blocked traffic.

Immigration authorities had detained 17 people at O’Hare but released them by late Saturday after federal judges issued restraining orders.

Hundreds gathered at the Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport in Texas, chanting “Set them free!” At times, cheers erupted from the crowd as those detained got released.

“This is what democracy looks like,” they chanted.

At the Portland International Airport in Portland, Oregon, crowd briefly disrupted light rail service, chanting: “Say it loud, say it clear, refugees are welcome here” and “No ban no wall, America is for us all.”

At the Los Angeles International Airport, hundreds of protesters held a candlelight vigil, assuring Muslims that America did not oppose their faith.

In San Francisco, protesters blocked the street outside the airport’s international terminal.

Published in Dawn, January 30th, 2017