Federal Judge Orders 'Sweeping' Stay of Trump's Immigration Ban
Says officials may not remove, detain or block entry of those with valid immigration visas.
Add another significant federal judge ruling to the complex mess that has followed President Donald Trump's executive order blocking immigrants—even those with green cards and visas—from entering the United States from a handful of countries.
A federal judge in Los Angeles, in response to case filed on behalf of 28 Yemeni-born folks who got caught up in Trump's order, has put out an order intended to halt the whole thing for now. Based on the Los Angeles Times report of the order, this is a broader ruling than what a judge decided on Saturday, which only stopped the government from removing those affected by the order. Here's this newest order (via the Los Angeles Times):
Notably, in his ruling, [U.S. District Judge Andre] Birotte forbade federal officials from "removing, detaining, or blocking the entry" of affected travelers or "cancelling validly obtained and issued immigrant visas of plaintiffs." The wording would seem to mean that government officials would not be allowed to continue the practice of instructing airlines and border officials in other countries to stop immigrants from the affected countries from boarding planes bound for the U.S.
The Times does not provide a link to the ruling as yet and the story isn't widely being picked up at the moment. And there have been other relevant court rulings as well since the first stay on Saturday night. As reporter Joel Rubin notes, though, it's hard to determine what the actual impact of the ruling may be, because it's not even clear to the extent that the administration is abiding by previous rulings. Rubin said they're seeing reports at Los Angeles International Airport (LAX) of travelers still being turned back.
Below, Reason went and chatted with protesters at LAX:
