Immigration attorney: Next hours, days test judge's ruling

NEW YORK (AP) — An immigration attorney at Kennedy Airport said Saturday that the next hours and days would test a federal judge's ruling blocking Donald Trump's executive order barring U.S. entry to travelers from seven mostly Muslim countries.

Camille Mackler, a lawyer with the New York Immigration Coalition, told The Associated Press that she expected a growing number of people to arrive on flights booked after Friday's ruling by a judge in Washington state — on visas issued before Trump signed his order on Jan. 27.

The federal judge in Washington only temporarily blocked enforcement of Trump's ban, meaning there may be a small window of time when people could travel to the U.S. Many airlines said they would allow passengers from the seven banned countries to board flights, but could not say whether they could enter the U.S. based on existing visas.

For now, the Washington state judge's order "means that they (travelers) can return home, it means they can rejoin their loved ones, it means they are no longer going to be singled out in this arbitrary manner, based on premises that are completely un-American."

[...] she noted, if the Trump administration got a stay of recent rulings by judges in various states, the president's executive order would then again be in effect.