Massachusetts Judge Rules in Favor of Temporary Halt on Trump's Immigration Order

A federal judge in Boston ruled early Sunday morning in favor of two plaintiffs in a lawsuit against President Donald Trump in regards to an immigration order barring them from re-entering the United States.

Lawyers for the Massachusetts chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union were able to temporarily stop Trump's executive order barring some travelers from seven different Muslim-majority nations.

On Saturday, two professors at the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth who are Iranian nationals were unable to return to the U.S. because of the executive order. Immigration lawyers said one was held for 2-plus hours, and the other was held for 3-plus hours, including "extreme interrogation."

Similar situations happened at other airports, including John F. Kennedy International Airport.

"If this is the way the country is going to be run, it's going to be a long four years," said immigration lawyer Kerry Doyle of the law firm Graves and Doyle.

"President Trump's executive order doesn't even pass the laugh test," the ACLU's Matt Segal added.

The ACLU of Massachusetts and other civil rights groups filed a lawsuit on behalf of the professors who were detained.

According to the ACLU of Massachusetts complaint, the professors had “a constitutional right to return home to the United States after a brief trip abroad, and cannot be deprived of their lawful permanent status without justification and due process protections.”

Overnight, following a hearing that lasted more than two hours, a federal judge issued a stay of the President's executive order in Boston for the next seven days.

“We received a restraining order that is local to Massachusetts, but significantly wider than the national restraining order,” said Susan Church, chair of American Immigration Lawyers of New England. “It has prohibited customs and border protection from violating the secondary inspection rule, against people who are using the executive order to interrogate them unnecessarily.”

Doyle said airlines must be notified and that an amended complaint must be filed by the end of the day on Monday.

“There will have to be an additional hearing on the amended complaint within the seven days,” Doyle said.

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