Darweesh v. Trump: Fighting back against Trump’s first Executive Order banning nationals from certain Muslim-majority countries

In January 2017, we filed this first-in-the-nation challenge to President Trump’s first Executive Order banning entry of nationals from certain Muslim-majority countries (EO #13,769).

We filed the emergency lawsuit on behalf of two Iraqi IRAP clients who were detained at JFK airport and threatened with deportation because the EO was issued while they were en route to the United States.

That same day, the court blocked deportations under the EO, leading to the release of approximately 2,000 people. In settling the case, the government agreed to reach out to everyone who was denied entry or deported under the EO and who had not yet reapplied for a visa or returned to the United States to inform them of their right to reapply for a visa.

The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), the National Immigration Law Center (NILC), the Worker and Immigrant Rights Advocacy Clinic at Yale Law School, and Kilpatrick Townsend & Stockton LLP were co-counsel in this litigation.