Donald Trump rebukes judge who lifted travel ban, vows to fight ruling

U.S. President Donald Trump on Saturday denounced a judge who lifted the travel ban he had imposed on citizens of seven mainly Muslim countries, taking an unusual jab at an independent branch of the U.S. government as he vowed to bring back the restrictions.

Trump's personal attack on U.S. District Judge James Robart went too far for some who said he was undermining an institution designed to check the power of the White House and Congress.

As the ban lifted, refugees and thousands of travelers from Iran, Iraq, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria and Yemen who had been stopped in their tracks last weekend by Trump's executive order scrambled to get flights to quickly enter the United States.

The Justice Department is expected to quickly argue in court to reverse a restraining order made by a federal judge in Seattle late on Friday.

Federal Judge James Robart, who was appointed by former Republican President George W. Bush, blocked on Trump's executive order, questioning its constitutionality.

"The opinion of this so-called judge, which essentially takes law-enforcement away from our country, is ridiculous and will be overturned!" Trump said on Twitter early on Saturday. Trump has said "extreme vetting" of refugees and immigrants is needed to prevent terrorist attacks.

Eight hours later, Trump tweeted: "What is our country coming to when a judge can halt a Homeland Security travel ban and anyone, even with bad intentions, can come into U.S.?"

It is unusual for a president to attack a member of the judiciary, which the U.S. Constitution designates as a check to the power of the White House and Congress.

Democratic Senator Ben Cardin of Maryland said Trump went too far by attacking the judge and the integrity of the judicial branch.

"He is undermining the entire system of government, not only the decisions with which he disagrees," Cardin said in a statement.

"Read the 'so-called' Constitution," tweeted Representative Adam Schiff, the top Democrat on the House Intelligence committee.

The court ruling was the first move in what could be months of legal challenges to Trump's push to clamp down on immigration. His order set off chaos last week at airports across the United States where travelers were stranded and thousands of people gathered to protest.

Americans are divided over Trump's order. A Reuters/Ipsos poll this week showed 49 percent favored it while 41 percent did not.

Rights groups, Democrats and U.S. allies have condemned the travel ban as discriminatory. On Saturday, there were protests against the ban in Washington, New York, Los Angeles and other cities.

At the White House, hundreds of protesters chanted "Donald, Donald can't you see? You're not welcome in D.C."

TRAVELERS MOVE WITH HASTE

In Erbil, the capital of the Kurdish region of northern Iraq, Fuad Sharef and his family prepared to fly on Saturday to Istanbul and then New York before starting a new life in Nashville, Tennessee.

"I am very happy that we are going to travel today. Finally, we made it," said Sharef, who was stopped from boarding a New York-bound flight last week.

"I didn't surrender and I fought for my right and other people's right," he told Reuters.

Trump's executive order caused confusion from the time it was signed as border agents tried to figure out who it applied to and many legal permanent residents - "green card" holders - from the seven countries were temporarily detained at airports while trying to return to the United States.

At Dulles International Airport outside Washington on Saturday, Cleveland gastroenterologist Maher Salam waited for his mother, Rukaieh Sarioul, to arrive from Riyadh.

Sarioul, a Syrian citizen who has a U.S. green card, was supposed to arrive a week ago but had delayed her plans because of the order.

Salam called Trump's order "very discriminatory."

"You cannot really separate the executive order from the rhetoric that Mr. Trump used during the campaign," he said.

On Saturday, a small group of immigration lawyers, some holding signs in English and Arabic, gathered at New York's John F. Kennedy International Airport, offering services to passengers arriving from overseas destinations.

"This is an instance where people could really slip through the cracks and get detained and nobody would know," said John Biancamano, 35, an attorney volunteering his services.

'IN GOD'S HANDS'

The Department of Homeland Security said on Saturday it would return to its normal procedures for screening travelers but that the Justice Department would file for an emergency stay of the order "at the earliest possible time."

Some travelers told Reuters they were cautious about the sudden change. Overnight, some international airlines were uncertain about whether they could sell tickets to travelers from the countries listed in Trump's ban.

"I will not say if I have hope or not. I wait, watch and then I build my hopes," said Josephine Abu Assaleh, who was stopped from entering the United States after landing in Philadelphia last week with five members of her family.

Abu Assaleh, 60, and her family were granted U.S. visas in 2016, some 13 years after they initially made their applications.

"We left the matter with the lawyers. When they tell us the decision has been canceled, we will decide whether to go back or not," she told Reuters in Damascus, speaking by telephone.

Virtually all refugees also were barred by Trump's order, upending the lives of thousands of people who have spent years seeking asylum in the United States.

Friday night's court decision sent refugee advocacy and resettlement agencies scrambling to help people in the pipeline.

Iraqi refugee Nizar al-Qassab, 52, told Reuters in Lebanon: "If it really has been frozen, I thank God, because my wife and children should have been in America by now."

He said his family had been due to travel to the United States for resettlement on Jan. 31. The trip was canceled two days before that and he was now waiting for a phone call from U.N. officials overseeing their case.

"It's in God's hands," he said.