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Cora Lewis/BuzzFeed News
A federal judge in Brooklyn on Saturday evening granted a nationwide stay of removal — preventing deportation — for those people affected by President Trump's Friday executive order stopping the refugee program and halting immigration from seven majority-Muslim countries.
“Nobody is to be removed,” US District Judge Ann Donnelly told the government lawyers, issuing the stay after holding the first hearing on a challenge to the order.
In the order that followed, Donnelly barred federal officials from removing those with approved refugee applications, valid immigrant and non-immigrant visas, and individuals from the seven countries where all immigration was halted who are otherwise legally authorized to enter the US. Those seven countries are Iran, Iraq, Libya, Somalia, Syria, Sudan, and Yemen.
The lawsuit was brought early Saturday on behalf of Hameed Khalid Darweesh and Haider Sameer Abdulkhaleq Alshawi, two men detained at John F. Kennedy International Airport for several hours after their arrival at the airport in the wake of Trump's signing of the ban.
In addition to the two men, however, the group of lawyers backing the men also filed a motion to turn the lawsuit into a class action, which would result in protection for all of those who would be covered by the class.
Later, they sought immediate action, filing a request that the court issue a stay of removal — an order preventing deportation — not only for the two men, but for the entire proposed class.
At the hearing, Donnelly focused in on whether the people affected by Trump's order would face irreparable harm if deported. When the government, essentially, had no answer to this, Donnelly questioned whether “the government had a full chance to think about this.”
Further proceedings in the case, ultimately challenging the constitutionality of Trump's order, are set for February.
The lawyers who brought the case come from International Refugee Assistance Project, National Immigration Law Center, American Civil Liberties Union Foundation, and the Jerome N. Frank Legal Services Organization at Yale Law School.
Read the order:
This is a developing story. Please check back at BuzzFeed News for more.
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