US judge orders Trump administration to allow entry to immigrant visa holders

A federal judge in Los Angeles has ruled President Donald Trump’s administration must allow immigrants with initial clearance for legal residency to enter the US from seven Muslim-majority nations, despite an executive order ban.
Tuesday’s ruling by US District Judge Andre Birotte Jr. follows decisions by federal judges in at least four other states that also limited the executive order Trump issued on Friday.
But it goes further, by focusing on a large group of people from the seven nations of Iran, Iraq, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria and Yemen — the countries targeted in the executive order — who are outside the US and trying to enter.
In the temporary ruling, Birotte ordered US officials to refrain from “removing, detaining or blocking the entry of plaintiffs or any other person ... with a valid immigrant visa” who is arriving from one of the seven nations.
According to the US Department of State, immigrant visas are the first step to becoming a lawful permanent resident, or a green card holder.
Birotte’s ruling does not apply to tourists, students or business travelers with non-immigrant visas.
A spokeswoman for the Department of Homeland Security cited its policy of not commenting on pending litigation.
Trump’s executive order has not only caused consternation for the nations involved but among other Muslim-majority countries, allies such as Germany and Britain and career State Department officials.
Moreover, Trump threatened on Thursday to cut funding to the University of California at Berkeley after protesters smashed windows and set fires at the liberal-leaning school, forcing the cancelation of an appearance by a far-right Breitbart News editor.
“If U.C. Berkeley does not allow free speech and practices violence on innocent people with a different point of view — NO FEDERAL FUNDS?” Trump wrote on Twitter at 6:13 a.m. He did not elaborate.
Representatives for the university, which has 38,000 students and a long history of activism, could not immediately be reached for comment outside of the school’s business hours.
Like other major US research universities, Berkeley depends on federal agencies for scientific grants and other support. It was not immediately clear, however, what action Trump could take without authorization from Congress, or without risking legal action.
Trump’s chief White House strategist, Steve Bannon, previously headed Breitbart News.
Hours before Breitbart’s Milo Yiannopoulos was to give a speech at Berkeley’s student union on Wednesday, hundreds of protesters clashed with police at the campus.
Demonstrators tossed metal barricades and rocks through the building’s windows and set a generator on fire near the entrance, footage from news outlets showed. Police ordered the crowds to disperse, and the school was put on lockdown.
“We shut down the event,” one protester told CNN. “It was great. Mission accomplished.”
In a statement, the university blamed about 150 “masked agitators” for the violence during the otherwise mostly peaceful demonstration by about 1,500 people.
The school “is proud of its history and legacy as home of the free speech movement” in the 1960s, the statement said.
Many of the protesters voiced opposition to Trump, CNN reported. The president’s executive orders and proposed policies, including his suspension of the US refugee program and temporary ban on travelers from seven Muslim-majority countries, have triggered largely peaceful demonstrations by tens of thousands of people across the US.

Source : Arab News