Female Jurists Take Prompt Action By Partially Pushing Back Trump’s #TravelBan

The travel ban ordered by the president of the United States, Donald Trump has received backlash. Mr. Trump’s executive order suspends the entire US refugee admissions system for 120 days. 

The order titled  Protecting the Nation From Foreign Terrorist Entry Into the United States was signed by Trump on Friday, 27th Jan 2017. The main purpose behind this ban is to make visa-issuance procedure more stringent. But it has affected scores of immigrants and the order is seen as a departure from the secular values, the country stands for. 

Chaos and anger engulfed travellers at airports, with citizens taking over the streets to protest this blanket ban. 

But on Saturday, a New York federal court, issued an emergency stay on Trump’s executive order banning immigration from seven predominantly muslim countries. A lawsuit was filed by legal organisations along with the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) on behalf of individuals who were subject to the ban and were detained by the US government with deportation while holding valid visas to enter the country. 
 

What restores our faith in this stay is the fact that four female judges partially pushed back the order.

These judges were responsible for giving a breather to the stranded and anxious travellers and immigrants. 

Ann Donnelly

In 1989, Ann Marie Donnelly was assigned to the Major Offence Career Criminal Program.  She has also worked as a senior trial counsel and as chief of the Family Violence and Child Abuse Bureau. In the past, she has served as a judge on the New York State Court of Claims and in the Supreme Courts in the Bronx, Brooklyn and Manhattan. Her most notable case before this came in 2005 when she helped lead the prosecution of Dennis Kozlowski, the chief executive of Tyco who was convicted looting $100 million from the company. On November 20, 2014, former President Barack Obama nominated Donnelly to serve as a United States District Judge of the United States District Court for the Eastern District of New York. 


Donnelly came into limelight again, by becoming one of the jurists holding back Trump’s order. Donnelly  issued an emergency stay blocking part of the order from going into effect. The ruling enjoined the federal government from deporting individuals who had arrived in  the country with valid visas or refugee status. 


Judge Allison Burroughs

People know Allison Dale Burroughs as fearless. As a prosecutor who cracked down on organized crime in Philadelphia during the 1990s at the US attorney’s office, Burroughs garnered a reputation as a whip-smart attorney who was attracted to challenging, demanding work. Dale Burroughs (born 1961) is a United States District Judge of the United States District Court for the District of Massachusetts. In a rare late-night session, Burroughs and Magistrate Judge Judith Dein imposed a seven-day restraining order, which clears the way for lawful immigrants to enter the United States from Iran, Iraq, Yemen, Somalia, Sudan, Libya, and Syria. Burroughs found that Trump’s order violated their constitutional rights to due process and equal protection and would cause “irreparable harm.” The ruling, which goes further than similar ones in New York and Virginia, prevents both the detention or removal of approved refugees and visa or green card holders from the seven affected nations — a move that has prompted some lawyers to encourage those with green cards to pass through Logan International Airport.

Leonie Brinkema

U.S. District Judge Leonie Brinkema late Saturday issued an order barring immigration officials for at least a week from deporting lawful permanent residents detained at Dulles, outside Washington. She also ordered immigration officials to allow lawyers access to those detainees. The New York order appears to affect the 100 to 200 people who have been detained in transit to the United States.