A federal judge on Friday issued a “first of its kind” ruling showing that President Donald Trump’s travel ban does not apply to legal permanent residents, in a partial victory against the controversial executive order.
U.S. District Judge Victoria Roberts of Detroit reaffirmed that the order, temporarily blocking entry for immigrants and refugees from seven majority-Muslim countries, does not apply to permanent residents, including green card holders—who were among the many travelers caught up in the sweeping executive order that saw immigrants detained at airports across the country last week.
“The court orders that the United States is permanently enjoined from applying Sections 3(c) and 3(e) of the January 27, 2017 executive order against lawful permanent residents of the United States,” Roberts wrote in her decision (pdf).
Trump’s order, signed January 27, blocked entry to the U.S. for immigrants and refugees from Syria, Iran, Iraq, Sudan, Somalia, Libya, and Yemen. It went into effect immediately, prompting massive protests at airports nationwide and swift action by civil and immigrant rights groups.
Nabih Ayad, an attorney with the Arab-American Civil Rights League, who co-filed an emergency lawsuit on Tuesday on behalf of several green card holders blocked from entering the country, told CBS Detroit on Friday, “It’s the first order of its kind across the nation. It makes absolutely certain that legal permanent residents—those with what we call in laypersons terms green card holders—can basically travel and leave the country as they please without hindrance by the executive order ban.”
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