Visa Holders Hurry to Board Flights to U.S. Amid Reprieve

CHICAGO (AP) —
Ammar Alnajjar (L)  shakes hands with his cousin, Fahd Alfakih, after arriving in New York’s JFK International Airport on a flight from Istanbul, Turkey, Feb. 4. (AP Photo/William Mathis)

Visa holders from seven majority-Muslim countries affected by President Donald Trump’s travel ban are hurrying to board U.S.-bound flights, fearing they might have only a slim window through which to enter the country after a federal judge temporarily blocked the ban.

Those who could travel immediately were being urged to do so because of uncertainty over whether the Justice Department would grant an emergency freeze of the order issued Friday by U.S. District Judge James Robart in Seattle.

The government on Saturday suspended enforcement of the week-old ban as it scurried to appeal Robart’s order.

Rula Aoun, director of the Arab American Civil Rights League in Dearborn, Michigan, told The Detroit News that she knows of one family who intends to fly back from Egypt on Sunday and another woman there who is booking her flight back as soon as possible.

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