NEW YORK // Although dozens of people detained at airports under Donald Trump’s new travel restrictions have now been released, lawyers say they are still working to free a number of remaining detainees and ensure no one else is in captivity.
Among those freed was a 77-year-old grandmother from Iraq who was held for more than 24 hours after arriving in Dallas.
Siham Abaas was travelling on a B-2 visitor visa but had the misfortune of being in the air when the US president issued an order banning the entry of travellers from Iraq. She was held with eight other people arriving on an Emirates flight.
Her son, who had driven for three hours to meet her, said he had only been able to reach her once by telephone after she signed papers to be deported.
However, they had a joyful reunion at an office building near the terminal after local officials freed all remaining detainees on Sunday afternoon.
The city mayor, Mike Rawlings, was on hand to offer apologies and bouquets of flowers.
Sean Spicer, spokesman for the president, said 109 people had been “inconvenienced” by the new regulations. But lawyers assisting people caught in the net said they believed as many as 400 people may have been detained around the country.
At New York’s Kennedy airport lawyers continued to work on Monday morning to free the last person still held after 41 were released on Saturday and Sunday. They said two people had been deported, despite a court order saying detainees should not be sent back.
“We continue to receive reports that agents are threatening to put refugees and others on planes and out of this country,” Jackie Vimo, policy analyst at the National Immigration Law Centre, told protesters in New York.
“This blatant disregard for a federal order is simply unacceptable.”
foreign.desk@thenational.ae
