President Donald Trump on Saturday defended his executive order barring refugees and citizens of seven predominantly Muslim countries from entering the country
Donald Trump on Saturday defended his tough new immigration bans, which prompted outrage as migrants were barred from entering the United States, including families of refugees, legal permanent residents and Ivy League students.
The president denied that his executive order, which bars refugees and citizens of seven predominantly Muslim countries from entering the US, was a Muslim ban.
He maintained that the ban was 'working very nicely' while chaos broke out in airports as migrants were stopped and some non-American citizens realized they were now barred from the country where they were studying or had lived, perhaps for years.
Trump's comments came as seven refugees bound for the US were stopped from boarding a plane in Cairo on Saturday and 12 migrants were detained in New York overnight because they arrived just after the executive order was signed. Additional reports of dozens of people being stopped from entering the US or booted off airplanes have been pouring in.
The president (pictured Saturday) denied that his executive order, which bars refugees and citizens of seven predominantly Muslim countries from entering the US, was a Muslim ban
Trump (pictured speaking with Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull Saturday) made several phone calls with world leaders from Japan, Germany, Russia and France while the crisis unfolded
'It's not a Muslim ban, but we are totally prepared,' Trump told reporters in the Oval Office Saturday afternoon, according to The Hill.
'It's working out very nicely. You see it in the airports, you see it all over. It's working out very nicely and we are going to have a very, very strict ban and we are going to have extreme vetting, which we should have had in this country for many years.'
Panic broke out after Department of Homeland Security issued a directive at 4:30 pm on Friday enforcing Trump's executive order to close down the borders to refugees and visa holders from a list of banned Muslim-majority countries.
In addition to Iran, the other countries on Trump's blacklist are Iraq, Syria, Sudan, Libya, Yemen and Somalia.
Reports of people being detained were coming from all around the United States on Saturday.
'They're literally pouring in by the minute,' director of the International Refugee Assistance Project Becca Heller told the New York Times.
One Yale student said he would be unable to attend the prestigious Ivy League university. Another student from the Massachusetts Institute Of Technology said he was barred from boarding a plane.
A Stanford University student, a Sudanese national and legal permanent resident with a green card, was held for eight hours at JFK before being able to return to California.
An Iranian scientist was meant to fly to Boston to study cardiovascular medicine at Harvard but has now had his visa suspended indefinitely.
'This outstanding young scientist has enormous potential to make contributions that will improve our understanding of heart disease, and he has already been thoroughly vetted,' Professor Thomas Michel, who was going to supervise the student, told The New York Times.
Two families of six from Syria were affected. One was supposed to relocate to Cleveland, Ohio, after having to flee their home in 2014. But their trip has now been canceled.
Another family of six from the war-torn country was detained at Philadelphia International Airport Saturday morning even though they had required legal documents and approved green cards and visas.
Plane passengers were turned away in Dubai and Istanbul, including at least one family who got ejected from a flight.
Four legal permanent residents with green cards coming home to Atlanta from Iran were detained, an attorney told WSBTV reporter Matt Johnson.
The fallout from Trump's immigration crackdown grew on Saturday. The visa ban sparked fear for some refugees who were already on their way to the US when the order came into effect and were detained on arrival.
It is not clear how many refugees or visa holders are already being detained across the country. Twelve refugees were held in New York City's JFK on Friday night.
Hameed Khalid Darweesh, one of the Iraqi refugees who was detained for 14 hours at New York, was released on Saturday afternoon.
The 53-year-old had arrived in America on a flight from Istanbul on Friday night, just hours after Trump implemented the immigration ban.
He had worked for the US government in Iraq for 10 years as a translator, engineer and contractor and had a valid special immigration visa to relocate to America.
Darweesh pumped his fist in the air outside the airport following his release, as a crowd of supporters cheered him on.
'First of all I want to thank the people that take care of me and support me. This is the humility, this is the soul of America,' he told a crowd gathered outside the airport.
'This is what pushed me to move - leave my country and come here. America is the land of freedom… America is the greatest nation, the greatest people in the world.'
Asked what he thought of Trump he said: 'I don't know. He's a president, I'm a normal person.'
He was travelling with his wife and three children at the time but they were not detained. They were heading to Charlotte, North Carolina to start their new life in America.
Uncertainty: Many have been left unsure of where they stand in relation to the new rules which denies entry even to Green Card holder from the seven banned states ''
It follows reports that Muslim-majority countries with ties to Trump's business empire have been excluded from the order'
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