13 Legal Actions Challenging Trump's Immigration Executive Order

By LAUREN PEARLE
JAMES HILL
Feb 1, 2017

President Donald Trump signed an executive order last week to suspend some immigration from seven predominantly Muslim countries -- Syria, Yemen, Sudan, Somalia, Iraq, Iran and Libya -- for 90 days, halt the refugee program for 120 days and suspend the admission of Syrian refugees indefinitely.

Since the order was signed last Friday, at least 13 lawsuits have been filed around the country, including one from the state of Washington. Attorneys general in Virginia, Massachusetts and New York today announced their intentions to intervene in existing federal suits filed over the past weekend in their states.

Here are the lawsuits filed so far that challenge Trump’s executive order as of Tuesday, naming the president the Department of Homeland Security the border patrol and others as defendants. The Trump administration denies that the order targets Muslims and that it is a "ban" at all.

Lawsuits Filed Tuesday

Chicago

Dr. Amer al Homssi, 24, a medical resident at the University of Illinois-Chicago/Advocate Christ Hospital in Oak Lawn, Illinois, has been stuck in Dubai since trying to board a Chicago-bound flight on Sunday, according to his complaint. A Syrian citizen who also holds legal residency in the United Arab Emirates, he was taken by U.S. pre-clearance security officers to secondary screening at Abu Dhabi International Airport, where officers cancelled his valid J-1 U.S. visa, citing the executive order. According to the complaint, the officers told Al Homssi there was nothing that could be done except to wait 90 days and then follow up with the U.S. embassy. Al Homssi risks losing his residency status in the UAE if he is not able to return to the U.S. to complete his medical residency. In that case, the complaint says, he may be forced to return to war-torn Syria, where he has never lived and where he hasn’t been since visiting when he was 17-years-old.

Philadelphia

Two Christian brothers, Basam Asali and Hassan Asali, and their families say they were detained at Philadelphia International Airport Saturday by Customs and Border Protection agents while trying to enter U.S. from Syria on lawful permanent resident visas (their brother, Ghassan Asali, is an American citizen). They claim they were given two options: return to Syria immediately or go to prison, their lawyer, Joseph Hohenstein said. The lawyer also said they were not given interpreters and there was no investigation into their case; they were simply asked if they were from Syria. They were returned to Syria and are now in Damascus, Hohenstein told ABC News.

Denver

Zakaria Hagig -- a Libyan Muslim student at the Community College of Denver who says in court papers he is a lawful resident and U.S. taxpayer -- filed a lawsuit in the U.S. District Court in Denver claiming that the order violates his religious and due process rights. In court papers, he says he “has a constitutional right to travel to Libya in the event of a family emergency, or other need, and return to the United States to continue his studies and work, and not be banned from reentry without justification and due process protections.”

Dallas

A writ of habeas corpus was filed on behalf of Labeeb Ibrahim Issa, who was allegedly "held against his will—in extreme pain in his wheelchair” by the U.S. Customs and Border Protection Agency, according to court documents. Issa was reportedly released after a 15-hour detention. The lawsuit claims that Issa worked for the U.S. Army in Iraq as a driver and performed general maintenance. In 2016, he was badly injured in a car accident in Iraq, after being targeted because of his work for the U.S. Army, the lawsuit claims. He was granted a Special Immigrant Visa after demonstrating “that he had experienced or was experiencing an ongoing serious threat due to his employment with the U.S. Government,” according to court papers. "Mr. Issa landed in Dallas hoping to find safety and freedom —- perhaps only a small token of thanks from our country in exchange for his extreme sacrifice for our country in its war efforts in his home country,” but was instead put through a terrible ordeal.

Lawsuits Filed Monday

State of Washington

Washington is the only state to file a lawsuit against Trump's executive order so far. The state's attorney general, Robert Ferguson, brought a case on behalf of the entire state against President Trump, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), DHS Secretary John Kelly, Acting Secretary of State Tom Shannon and the U.S. to “protect the State - including its residents, its employers, and its educational institutions - against illegal actions of the President and the federal government.” The complaint alleges that the executive order is “separating Washington families, harming thousands of Washington residents, damaging Washington's economy, hurting Washington-based companies, and undermining Washington's sovereign interest in remaining a welcoming place for immigrants and refugees.” They claim if successful, the executive order will be deemed unconstitutional nationwide and ask for a restraining order to immediately stop all action pursuant to it. Amazon and Expedia filed declarations in the lawsuit describing the detrimental impact on their operations and employees. Ferguson asked the court to schedule a hearing within 14 days.

Chicago

Unnamed John Doe, an Iranian citizen and legal permanent resident of the U.S., who lives in Chicago with his family, claims he went home to Iran earlier this month to be with his ailing mother and was planning on returning to the U.S. in early February. He wasn’t, however, permitted to purchase a plane ticket for his return, he claims. According to the Chicago Tribune, the judge assigned to this case, U.S. District Judge Samuel DerYeghiayan, is an Armenian, born in Aleppo, Syria and the first Armenian immigrant to become a federal judge in the U.S.

Virginia

Under the Council On American Islamic Relations' banner, Muslim-Americans from around the country filed a constitutional challenge to Trump’s executive order, which they said “implements an impermissible religious gerrymander that divides foreign nationals, even those lawfully present inside the United States, into favored and disfavored groups based on their faith.” The suit accused the president of enacting a policy “that overtly discriminates against Muslims and officially broadcasts a message that the federal government disfavors the religion of Islam.” Some of the plaintiffs said the order would force them to return to their home countries where the lawsuit said “they will likely face persecution, torture and even execution simply because they are Muslim.” The lawsuit quotes Trump’s campaign rhetoric and calls the executive order “the legal manifestation of those bigoted views.”

Seattle

The American Immigration Council, Northwest Immigrant Rights Project, and the National Immigration Project of the National Lawyers Guild filed a nationwide, class-action lawsuit in the District Court for the Western District of Washington on behalf of U.S. citizens and lawful permanent residents who have filed visa petitions for their immediate family members who are nationals of the seven countries. The applicants have all gone through a lengthy and rigorous application and screening process and are seeking to be reunited with their families in the U.S., the lawsuit claims. “Since issuance of the executive order, immigrants have been unjustly blocked from entering the United States at airports all across the country. Now, federal government officials are blocking more family members before they even board their planes, and suspending or revoking all other visa applications,” according to the filing.

“Plaintiffs include Reema Dahman, a lawful permanent resident of the United States, who had filed a petition to bring her 16-year-old son, stranded in war-torn Syria, to the United States. The two have not seen each other since 2012. They are now at the last stage of processing, waiting only for an immigrant visa interview to be scheduled. But the president’s executive order has suspended immigrant visa interviews, putting safety and security further out of the boy’s reach and further delaying the boy’s reunification with his mother,” according to the plaintiffs’ press release.

“Plaintiff Juweiya Ali’s 6-year-old Somali son is also in limbo. Ms. Ali, a U.S. citizen, began the process to bring him to the United States from Somalia in August 2016. But they too now are left to worry that the visa process will remain suspended indefinitely,” according to the plaintiffs’ press release.

Lawsuits Filed Over the Weekend

The court ordered emergency stays in all the following cases. These are temporary orders that prevented the Customs and Border Protection, a division of DHS, from sending back those in detention who had made it to the U.S. or were en-route to the U.S. when the executive order was signed. These judges did not rule on the underlying legality or constitutionality of Trump’s executive order.

Brooklyn, New York

Two men from Iraq, Hameed Khalid Darweesh and Haider Sameer Abdulkhaleq Alshawi, were detained overnight Saturday at JFK Airport. New York Democratic Reps. Jerry Nadler and Nydia Velazquez appeared at the airport on Saturday to try to get the two men released, revealing that there were actually 12 people detained, including the two men from Iraq. New York District Court Judge Ann Donnelly issued a nationwide emergency stay that prevents detainees from being sent back.

Boston

Two Iranian nationals who are associate professors at the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth, lawful permanent residents of the U.S., and Muslims, were allegedly detained at Boston Logan Airport on Saturday after returning home from an academic conference. Judge Allison Burroughs granted a seven-day temporary restraining order and ordered the plaintiffs to file an amended complaint. Unlike the New York order, this does not apply nationally.

Dulles Airport, Virginia

Fifty to 60 lawful permanent residents of the United States allegedly were detained at Dulles International Airport on Saturday, and their lawyers claimed they were denied access to counsel. Judge Leonie Brinkema granted the plaintiffs' motion and issued a seven-day temporary restraining order granting detainees at Dulles International Airport access to counsel and prohibiting deportation of detainees. The plaintiffs filed an amended complaint on Monday, clarifying the class. The plaintiffs defined the class as "individuals with legal permanent resident status or who are traveling on valid U.S. immigrant visas who have been or will be either detained and/or coerced into signing a Form I-407."

Seattle

Saturday, two plaintiffs arrived at Sea-Tac Airport and were scheduled to be flown to Dubai. They were represented by the Northwest Immigrant Rights Project, which filed an Emergency Petition for Writ of Habeas Corpus, and a motion for a temporary restraining order. The same day, Judge Thomas Zilly granted stay of removal (deportation) and enjoined the defendants from deporting the plaintiffs prior to further court orders.

California

A federal judge in California on Sunday granted a temporary restraining order preventing the U.S. government from deporting Ali Khoshbakhti Vayeghan, an Iranian man with a valid U.S. visa, who filed a lawsuit Saturday. But before the court had issued the ruling, Vayeghan had already been put back on a plane to Dubai to be removed to Iran. U.S. District Judge Dolly Gee ordered that US authorities bring Vayeghan back to the U.S. and to not stand in the way of admitting him to the country under the terms of his previously approved visa.