Visa holders, refugees face detentions at US airports

US authorities wasted no time implementing Donald Trump's order halting Muslim arrivals, detaining travelers arriving at American airports within hours of the US president signing the tough new measures, media reports said yesterday.

The New York Times reported that airport officials as early as Friday night began detaining travelers, some of whom already had been aboard their flights when Trump announced his executive order closing America's borders to refugees.

Trump's order, which suspends entry of all refugees to the United States for 120 days, created a legal limbo for individuals on the way to the United States and panic for families who were awaiting their arrival.

Refugees who were in the air on the way to the United States when the order was signed were stopped and detained at airports, reports said.

Green card and visa holders were also being blocked from boarding US-bound flights, according to reports compiled by Independent.

In Egypt, an Iraqi family was barred from flying from Cairo to New York yesterday, airport officials said.

Arab-American Anti-Discrimination Committee warned against green card holders from the listed countries from travelling outside the US until the ban is lifted.

The detentions prompted legal challenges as lawyers representing two Iraqi refugees held at Kennedy Airport filed a writ of habeas corpus early yesterday in the Eastern District of New York seeking to have their clients released. At the same time, they filed a motion for class certification, in an effort to represent all refugees and immigrants who they said were being unlawfully detained at ports of entry.

It was unclear how many refugees and immigrants were being held nationwide in the aftermath of the executive order.