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 Saturday.
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 suspends entry of all refugees to the United States for 120 days and indefinitely halts the admission of refugees from Syria.
It also bans entry into the United States from travelers from seven predominantly Muslim countries — Iraq, Syria, Iran, Sudan, Libya, Somalia and Yemen — for 90 days.
The order paved the way for what Trump has pledged will be “extreme vetting” of visa applicants’ backgrounds — with some exceptions made for members of “religious minorities,” a caveat many see as a way to apply favorable treatment to Christians from majority Muslim states.
The move makes good on one of Trump’s most controversial campaign promises, when he vowed to stem immigration from various Muslim countries which he insists pose a terror threat to the United States, and to subject future arrivals to “extreme vetting.”
The Times said the detentions have been met with early legal challenges, as lawyers representing two Iraqi refugees being held at New York’s John F. Kennedy Airport filed a court appeal for their release, alleging that the two travelers were being unlawfully detained.
Berlin Wall reminder
In Tehran, two travel agencies said they had been instructed by Etihad Airways, Emirates and Turkish Airlines not to sell US tickets or allow Iranians holding American visas to board US-bound flights.
An Iranian studying in California visiting her home country said Saturday that she could not return because her ticket had been canceled under the new restrictions.
“I had a ticket for Turkish Airlines on February 4, but it has been canceled,” the girl who did not wish to be identified told AFP.
“I’ve informed the university officials by mail and they were surprised. They are going to send me a letter so I can try fly from Europe.”
Iranian President Hassan Rouhani did not comment directly on the visa ban Saturday, but did criticize Trump, saying that now was “not the time to build walls between nations.”
“They have forgotten that the Berlin Wall collapsed many years ago. Even if there are walls between nations, they must be removed,” Rouhani said.
More than a million Iranians live in the United States.
Qatar travel alert
In Doha, Qatar Airways said Saturday it would “enforce” the new Trump rules and it would only carry passengers to the US who had the correct documentation.
“If travelers to the US don’t have the proper documentation, we are not going to take them to the US.”
The airline, which flies to at least 15 American cities, also posted a “travel alert” online on Saturday, listing the paperwork required by citizens of the seven countries.
These included the permanent resident card, known as the “Green Card,” and up to eight different types of visa.
Qatar Airways destinations in the US include New York, Atlanta and Chicago.
Stopped in Cairo
On Saturday in Egypt, a country not included in the new restrictions, an Iraqi couple and their two children were told they could not board an EgyptAir flight from Cairo to New York.
Airport officials said the four Iraqis all had American visas.
The New York Times reported that two Iraqi refugees who landed at New York’s John F. Kennedy airport hours after Trump signed the tough new measures were detained by authorities.
On Saturday, the American Civil Liberties Union and other advocacy groups filed a legal challenge to Trump’s order after the two Iraqi men were detained.
Lawyers representing the pair also filed a court appeal for their release, saying they were being unlawfully detained.
Reacting to Trump’s move, the United Nations urged him to continue his country’s “long tradition” of welcoming refugees and to ensure their equal treatment, regardless of race, nationality or religion.
French President Francois Hollande said Europe must have a “firm response” to Trump, and “when he refuses the arrival of refugees, while Europe has done its duty, we have to respond.”
Hollande was due to speak with Trump later Saturday.
In Lebanon, Syrian refugees struggling to get by in makeshift camps shivered as temperatures dipped close to freezing and bemoaned their fate.

Source : Arab News