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Updated 2.55pm
REFUGEES EN ROUTE to the United States have been detained at airports after President Donald Trump signed an executive order barring all refugees from entering the US for three months.
Those from war-ravaged Syria will be banned from entering the country indefinitely. Trump said the ban is necessary to prevent “radical Islamic terrorists” from entering the nation.
Cairo airport officials say seven US-bound migrants — six from Iraq and one from Yemen — have been prevented from boarding an EgyptAir flight to New York’s JFK airport.
The officials said the action by the airport today was the first since Trump imposed the ban on refugees from seven Muslim-majority countries: Iraq, Syria, Iran, Sudan, Libya, Somalia and Yemen.
The officials said the seven migrants, escorted by officials from the UN refugee agency, were stopped from boarding the plane after authorities at Cairo airport contacted their counterparts in JFK airport.
The New York Times reports that the detentions have prompted legal challenges from two Iraqi refugees held at JFK Airport.
Their lawyers want them released and also 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.
The head of a leading refugee aid agency has said Trump’s decision hurts innocent people fleeing violence.
Jan Egeland of the Norwegian Refugee Council said the move “will not make America safer, it will make America smaller and meaner”.
Egeland said the decision dealt a “mortal blow” to the idea of international responsibility for those fleeing persecution. He says the US is leading a “race to the bottom” in which politicians in wealth countries provide “zero moral leadership”.
Religion
The executive order signed by Trump yesterday immediately suspended a programme that last year resettled to the US roughly 85,000 people displaced by war, political oppression, hunger and religious prejudice.
Trump indefinitely blocked all those fleeing Syria, where a civil war has displaced millions of people, and imposed a 90-day ban on entry to the US from seven Muslim-majority nations.
“We want to ensure that we are not admitting into our country the very threats our soldiers are fighting overseas,” Trump said as he signed the order at the Pentagon. “We only want to admit those into our country who will support our country and love deeply our people.”
Trump said the halt in the refugee programme was necessary to give government agencies time to develop a stricter vetting system. But the order did spell out what additional steps he wants the Homeland Security and State departments to take.
The US may admit refugees on a case-by-case basis during the freeze, and the government will continue to process requests from people claiming religious persecution, “provided that the religion of the individual is a minority religion in the individual’s country”.
In an interview with CBN News, Trump said persecuted Christians would be given priority in applying for refugee status.
“We are going to help them,” Trump said. “They’ve been horribly treated.”
The order was signed on Trump’s most robust day of national security and foreign policy at the start of his presidency, marked by a meeting with British Prime Minister Theresa May and a lengthy phone call with Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto.
As a candidate, Trump called for a temporary ban on all Muslim immigration to the US. He later shifted his focus to putting in place “extreme vetting” procedures to screen people coming to the US from countries with terrorism ties.
The Council on American-Islamic Relations, or CAIR, said it would file a federal lawsuit on Monday challenging the constitutionality of the executive order.
“There is no evidence that refugees — the most thoroughly vetted of all people entering our nation — are a threat to national security,” CAIR’s National Litigation Director Lena F.Masri said. “This is an order that is based on bigotry, not reality.”
Holocaust Remembrance Day
During the past budget year, the US accepted 84,995 refugees, including 12,587 people from Syria. President Barack Obama had set the refugee limit for this budget year at 110,000.
Trump, according to the executive order, plans to cut that to 50,000. Refugee processing was suspended in the immediate aftermath of the September 11 attacks and restarted months later.
The president was applauded by House Speaker Paul Ryan, who said it was “time to re-evaluate and strengthen the visa-vetting process.” Many Democrats cast the measures as un-American.
“Tears are running down the cheeks of the Statue of Liberty tonight as a grand tradition of America, welcoming immigrants, that has existed since America was founded has been stomped upon,” Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said.
Trump’s order was signed on Holocaust Remembrance Day, which brought to mind the global effort to help refugees during World War II and its aftermath.
The order makes no mention of a plan to provide safe zones in Syria and the surrounding area. A draft of the order had directed the Pentagon and the State Department to produce a plan for safe zones in the war-torn Mideast nation.
The president’s directive capped a hectic first week for Trump at the White House, giving Americans an initial look at how he intends to position the US around the globe.
Earlier on Friday, he hosted May at the White House for his first meeting with a world leader since taking office. Asked about whether he would revert back to Bush-era use of torture, Trump said he would defer to the views of Defense Secretary Jim Mattis.
“He has stated publicly that he does not necessarily believe in torture or waterboarding, or however you want to define it … I don’t necessarily agree,” Trump said. “But I would tell you that he will override because I’m giving him that power. He’s an expert.”
The Associated Press and other news organisations have obtained copies of a draft executive order signaling sweeping changes to US interrogation and detention policy. The draft, which the White House said was not official, also requests recommendations on whether the US should reopen CIA detention facilities outside the United States. Critics said the clandestine sites have marred America’s image on the world stage.
Trump held firm yesterday on another controversy — trade and illegal immigration from Mexico. He told reporters he had a “very good call” with Peña Nieto earlier in the day, but he reaffirmed his belief that Mexico has “outnegotiated and beat us to a pulp” on trade — and that would change.
“We’re no longer going to be the country that doesn’t know what it’s doing,” he declared a day after the Mexican leader canceled his visit to Washington in response to Trump’s plans to build a border wall and have Mexico pay for it.
The end is near from the US backed rats in Aleppo. Neighbourhood after neighbourhood is falling today as the Islamist Neanderthals run away. Finally we are seeing civilians flee from their hostage situation as the terrorist are running so fast they have no time to shoot civilians who are fleeing from them.
You might want to update your article, thousands of civilian are now fleeing to government held areas as rebel lines collapse. I wonder how the western media is going to report this as it, it doesn’t fit their propaganda they’ve been spewing for the last year on Aleppo.
If the Assad regime is so bad according to the Western media then why is everyone running to safety in their area of control? Surely the US backed “moderate” rebels are their saviours, right?
Simple survival. Dont think anyone is launching constant air strikes etc into government held areas.
I don’t think Assad’s forces are chopping the heads off 12 y.o boys either.
@Pat O’Dwyer: CIA Still Supplies TOW Missiles To ‘Rebel Group’ That Beheaded Child Near Aleppo and Filmed This.
Syrian “moderate rebel group” Nour al-Din al-Zenki became widely known past July after beheading a child near Aleppo city and posting the video (CAUTION GRAPHIC FOOTAGE) of this. Initially, some mainstream media (for exmaple BBC) attempted to defend the ‘moderate opposition group’, explaining that it was a “mistake” and an isolated case. [Indeed it was not a msitake, Nour al-Din al-Zenki members continue to behead their opponents].
However, under the pressure of public opinion, the US State Department was pushed to announce that the US may consider to withdraw its support for “rebels” if reports of beheading of 14-year old boy are confirmed. Let’s give a word to State Department spokesman Mark Toner:
https://southfront.org/cia-still-supplies-tow-missiles-to-rebel-group-that-beheaded-child-near-aleppo-and-filmed-this/
@Pat O’Dwyer:
WWIII ?
Media Blackout: House of Reps passes ‘No-Fly Zone in Syria’ bill during special session with rules suspended.
Hillary Clinton’s loss was a shock to the purveyors of U.S. military hegemony, who saw in her an easier path to keep the Syria conflict going. Secretary of State Clinton was instrumental in the early days of Syria intervention, in 2010 making a series of demands for Syria to get in line behind the U.S. vision for the Middle East.
When Bashar al-Assad refused to roll over, regime change became the talking point of Washington think tanks and mainstream media echo chambers. Clinton promised during her campaign to ramp up action in Syria, to the delight of the same neocons who brought the Iraq invasion. She acknowledged that many civilians would die if the U.S. set up a no-fly zone.
Establishment of a no-fly zone is the next crucial step toward full-scale war. It would mean Syrian planes could not fly in their own airspace and would bring the disturbing prospect of U.S. planes shooting down Russian planes — which are operating there on invitation from Syria to help battle ISIS.
Soon after the presidential election, key warmongers in Congress began formulating plans to make increased conflict a near certainty, complete with the kind of propaganda peddled before the Iraq attack. While everyone was distracted by the election of Trump, six representatives took advantage of the lame-duck session and suspended “normal rules” to bring us H.R. 5732.
https://www.sott.net/article/334894-Media-Blackout-House-of-Reps-passes-No-Fly-Zone-in-Syria-bill-during-special-session-with-rules-suspended
That’s a well thought out response Brian.
BARACK OBAMA got a noble peace prize!! Remember. That???? I suggest the Novel Committee members to put a 10 year minimum hiatus before they consider applicants in future as this Warlord Obama has turned into a real bad egg!!!!!
# NOBEL Committee….. Typos don’t do favours to me!
Oh dear! If any normal readers are in doubt that Putinbots aren’t spamming the Journal, ask yourself why Charlie’s non-partisan comment got red-thumbed to hell. MUST NOT ALLOW DISSENTING LOGIC, COMRADES. KEEP TROLLING!!!
It is and really they should do something about it before it becomes a corporate owned indy media site. Bit of oxymoron there.
It’s interesting the article doesn’t state whether the families are fleeing from ISIS or the moderate rebels.
Maybe they were just fleeing to safety and couldn’t give a fcuk who they are?
You mean ISIS or Al Qaeda!
Deery me, how is the BBC going to report on the imminent defeat of it’s beloved and rebranded “moderate rebels” in East Aleppo. Especially, after all the hard work they’ve done in promoting this distorted propaganda myth in the first place.
The so called “moderate rebels” in East Aleppo are at best Muslim Brotherhood extremist’s and at worst, head hacking, sharia law loving fanatics.
Hopefully, when these Islamist fanatics are defeated; some sort of ceasefire will prevail between Syrian Govt. forces and legitimate opposition groups and unite against the other Islamist “moderate rebels” in Raqqa.
You can see the muck from the Guardian already today. According to them people are going government areas due to starvation, the air assault or because of the SAA advance. They are beyond
pathetic at this stage. No mention that people are fleeing the head hacking terrorists that held them captive in Islamist controlled districts. The Guardian no longer allowed comments on articles related to Syria which says it all. The lies and propaganda they spouted on a regular basis was debunked by most commentators so censorship was their answer to that problem.
Or maybe the Grauniad’s moderators got so fed up of removing endless automated posts fed non-stop by what are so obviously Kremlin shills (ALWAYS the same messages; ALWAYS deflection/whataboutery; ALWAYS on the same topics) that they gave up out of sheer boredom. The Journal is one of the few places they can still get away with it – mind you, a load of normal readers seem to avoid Syria articles these days, can only assume they got fed up with being spammed by the Putinbots.
Harry your rant is pathetic, if its not Shinnerbots it’s now Putinbots to label the many people who don’t believe the rubbish of established media outlets in Ireland and the rest in general. The Guardian was and is publishing pure and utter rubbish with no evidence whatsoever and and nearly 90% of comments were challenging their lies and highlighting the falsities they were making, especially in relation to the so called “rebels”, who are head hacking savages for the most part.
LMAO, whataboutery and links to pro-Kremlin blogs =/= ‘challenging’ anything.
I have not educated myself on the various groups in this city but isn’t it absolutely abominable that schools and hospitals have been deliberately targeted.
@winston smith: which hospitals or schools are you talking about exactly, those the yanks are constantly talking in the media about but refuse to give anybody details at all about any of them
It’s called extermination of human civilians. Barbaric and criminal.
No words of condemnation from the Pope. Understandable since the civilian victims are not Roman Catholics.
The Pope has being calling for a ceasefire for months now and as recently 18 of November has commented on it. It might be because there are Christians caught up with Muslims in the bloodbath. Then again it might just be down to not wanting to see civilians of any faith getting slaughtered.
@Brian Ward: he originally called for a cease fire before the mass killings started. Now he remains mute in the face of a war crime.
@Micheal OLainn: I don’t see why you’re having a go at the Pope seeing as the atrocities that are being carried out are for the most part committed by Muslim fanatics. I can’t see them suddenly listening to the head of the Catholic Church anytime soon and deciding to fold up their tents and buggering off back to the Dark Ages. Now if the heads of Qatar, Saudi, Turkey and the US/NATO allies said something or even stopped supporting these terrorists then maybe something might happen.
Come to think of it the Dalai Lama has been very quiet about the whole war, maybe you should have a go at him as well!
It seems that not even children are innocent.
Dark days ahead for the people of Aleppo and don’t show much mercy from the Russians either. They just want to get the job done and go home to their families….
Very strange comment. Get online and you’ll see what’s happening all day. Terrorists are fleeing to the south of their enclave in Aleppo city and civilians, in there thousands, are going to SAA/YPD controlled districts. Bright days ahead for the civilian of Aleppo as the terrorists that were holding them hostage flee.
@PaulJ: So Paul you think the war is nearly over, what started as a civil revolt now is a war against terrorism. So who are these terrorists if they are not the opposition to a sadistic regime.
Sorry Chris, but you are main stream media misinformed. There was never a civil rising in Syria. In 2009 Assad blocked a proposed oil line from Qatar to Turkey. The US then set about “regime change”.They never tried to eradicate ISIS as they needed their disruption in northern Syria, as they attempted to remove Assad. But the worst part and what will be Obama’s legacy is the arming and funding of Al Qaeda and the disgraceful attempt to call them “moderate” rebels and paint them as the good guys!..This is the same Al Qaeda that attacked the US in 9/11, killing thousands!
@Lord Clanricarde: and the same al CIAda that were supported by the Saudi government and it’s assets in the US, the same terrorists the US allowed to fly planes in the most watched and guarded airpace on the planet for over 1.5 hours
follow the money
so this morning we find out that all 10,000 residents of the area have managed to flee after Syrian and Russian forces wipe out even more of the western backed ISIS terrorists, it seems the western media and it’s sources have got the population of the area wrong by 265,000
have your say