People Impacted by Trump Immigration Orders Arrive in Boston

A number of people affected by President Trump's immigration orders arrived at Boston's Logan Airport Thursday.

Lufthansa began allowing them to board planes bound for the U.S. in accordance with the temporary order issued by a federal judge in Massachusetts Sunday.

One man, who does not want to be identified, also touched down in Boston Thursday through Air France.

"I was the first one to get on the plane," he said.

He was visiting his sick mother in Syria. It was a little more difficult to get back to his family and home in Watertown.

"He had to make a dangerous journey from Demascus to Beirut to Paris to Boston," said a family member of the man.

Their arrival comes as a U.S. district judge in Boston ordered a State Homeland Security Department memo be released Thursday afternoon. The order revoked all visas, with a few exceptions, from people from the seven countries listed in President Trump's executive order last Friday.

"It's completely shocking that they included immigrant visas," said immigration lawyer Jeff Goldman. "That means green card holders."

Goldman believes it's unconstitutional and also affects people already in the U.S.

"This specific memo from the state department canceling their visas absolutely affects people who are already here, because it means that they can't leave and come back," Goldman said.

It has the Watertown resident wondering if he'll ever see his sick mother in Syria again.

"It was hard to have to leave her suddenly," he said.

There will be hearing on the temporary order in Boston Friday.

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