There is NO travel ban

Palm Beach : The US government began to roll back Donald Trump’s contentious visa bans targeting majority-Muslim countries yesterday, after a stinging legal defeat for the new president.

Government agencies and US airlines said they would again recognise visas from seven majority Muslim nations and cease enforcing the Trump’s order, after a Washington State judge put a block pending legal review.

The high profile setback provoked Trump to fire off an attack on the judge, almost unprecedented for sitting president.

“The opinion of this so-called judge, which essentially takes law-enforcement away from our country, is ridiculous and will be overturned!” Trump tweeted yesterday morning from his Mar-a-Lago Florid retreat, where he is on a three night getaway.

US District Judge James Robart of Washington State -- an appointee of Republican president George W. Bush -- issued a nationwide order blocking Trump’s bans late Friday. By early Saturday, the US government began implementing the judge’s order.

The State Department told visa holders from Iran, Iraq, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria and Yemen that they are again allowed to travel as long as the documents had not been “physically cancelled.”

The department early said up to 60,000 people had their visas revoked as a result of Trump’s order, although a Justice Department attorney put the number at closer to 100,000.

The Department of Homeland Security -- which runs border agencies -- also said it would cease implementing the order.

 “We have reversed the provisional revocation of visas,” a State Department spokesman said.

“Those individuals with visas that were not physically cancelled may now travel if the visa is otherwise valid,” the official said, while a complaint against Trump’s decree by Washington state’s attorney general Bob Ferguson is officially reviewed.

Ferguson said Friday the court’s suspension of Trump’s order meant “the constitution prevailed” as “no one is above the law -- not even the president.”

The travel restrictions went into effect a week ago, wreaking havoc at airports across America and leaving travellers trying to reach the United States in limbo.

Democrats in Congress were swift in their condemnation of Trump’s remarks, while Republicans notably did not rush to his defense.

“This ‘so-called’ judge was nominated by a ‘so-called’ President & was confirmed by the ‘so-called’ Senate. Read the ‘so-called’ Constitution,” tweeted California democrat, Congressman Adam Schiff.

The White House has argued that the travel bans are needed in order to prevent terror attacks on the United States.