New York // Arab and Muslim travellers have been detained at American airports and barred from planes bound for the US after Donald Trump signed an order banning the entry of visitors from seven Muslim-majority countries.
The executive order, which also suspends the US refugee programme, has provoked waves of condemnation, confusion and anxiety for those holding visas.
Major companies sent messages to immigrant staff travelling overseas to return immediately, while legal residents frantically tried to clarify their status, and feared being trapped overseas or separated from family members.
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The executive order failed to clarify key details, leading to confusion among government agencies, immigration officials and airlines.
The order raised the prospect of a restriction on travel for nearly 500,000 permanent residents in the US from the seven countries, most of whom are Iranian and Iraqi nationals.
Amid the confusion, the Department of Homeland Security later confirmed that green-card holders, who are authorised to live and work in the US, were not exempt from the ban.
Immigration lawyers, who were inundated with requests for help, said the order was being enforced unevenly across different airports in the US.
In Cairo, airport officials said seven migrants - six from Iraq and one from Yemen - were prevented from boarding an EgyptAir flight to New York's JFK airport.
In California, Mohamed Al Rawi, a government worker, said his father was en route from Baghdad but had been told that he could not board a flight to Los Angeles from Qatar despite having a visa.
"I wanted to book a hotel room for my dad so he can rest, I cannot because his passport was taken away from him," he posted on Facebook. "He's being locked in a room not knowing what will happen."
During the election campaign, Mr Trump vowed to ban all foreign Muslims entering the US as part of an antiterrorism drive.
Widespread revulsion prompted him to water down the proposal. However, stricter screening of Muslim refugees and visitors remained a key part of his election platform.
On Friday, he signed an executive order barring all refugees from entering the US for 120 days and placing an indefinite ban on those from Syria.
The order also bans entry for 90 days from seven nations linked to terrorism concerns: Iran, Iraq, Syria, Yemen, Sudan, Libya and Somalia.
It includes a religious test, ordering that Christians and other minority religions be given priority over Muslims. "I never thought something like this would happen in America," said Mohammad Hossein Ziya, 33, who came to the United States in 2011 after being forced to leave Iran for his political activities.
Mr Ziya, who lives in Virginia, has a green card and planned to travel to Dubai next week to see his elderly father. "I can't go back to Iran, and it's possible I won't be able to return here, a place that is like my second country," he said.
In an interview with an Evangelical Christian television network broadcast on Friday, Mr Trump said that "if you were a Christian in Syria it was impossible, at least very tough to get into the United States. If you were a Muslim you could come in."
In 2016, an almost equal number of Christian and Muslim refugees were allowed into the US - 37,521 and 38,901, respectively - according to the Pew Research Center.
"We want to ensure that we are not admitting into our country the very threats our soldiers are fighting overseas," Mr Trump said as he signed the order during a visit to the Pentagon.
The order, called "Protecting the Nation from Foreign Terrorist Entry into the United States", also leaves open the possibility of further countries being added to the ban list.
It seeks to overhaul the US visa process to tighten restrictions but in the meantime bans most arrivals from the seven countries, even if travellers already hold a visa.
"The United States cannot, and should not, admit those who do not support the Constitution, or those who would place violent ideologies over American law," the order states.
Qatar Airways said only diplomats and some categories of government and international workers would be allowed to fly to the US. Emirates said a small number of passengers had been affected. Etihad Airways warned passengers from the seven countries that they would be allowed to travel only with diplomatic, Nato or other specialist visas.
Across the US there were reports of new arrivals being detained.
Hameed Khalid Darweesh and Haider Sameer Abdulkhaleq Alshawi, both from Iraq, were detained at Kennedy Airport on Friday night, according to papers filed in the Eastern District of New York.
Mr Darweesh had worked as an interpreter for the Army's 101st Airborne Division in Baghdad and Mosul, and had been targeted because of his links to the American military.
Mr Darweesh was eventually allowed to enter the US after an intervention at the airport by two members of Congress from New York City.
The executive order was the latest to be signed by Mr Trump as he tries to push through a hardline right-wing populist agenda. It follows others that have ordered the construction of a wall with Mexico and the dismantling of key features of ObamaCare.
Refugee and immigrant advocacy groups said they would launch legal challenges. "'Extreme vetting' is just a euphemism for discrimination against Muslims," said Anthony Romero, executive direction of the American Civil Liberties Union, which has filed a legal challenge to the detention of Messrs Darweesh and Alshawi. "Identifying specific countries with Muslim majorities and carving out exceptions for minority religions flies in the face of the constitutional principle that bans the government from either favouring or discriminating against particular religions. Any effort to discriminate against Muslims and favour other religions runs afoul of the First Amendment."
The order also forced a number of major companies into scrambling to protect their workers who were overseas and faced the prospect of being unable to return on existing work visas.
Google warned employees who were abroad to get in touch with their own immigration lawyers and security personnel, and to return to the US immediately.
The United Nations refugee agency and International Organisation for Migration said the US resettlement programme was vital at a time when war continued to rage in Syria.
"The needs of refugees and migrants worldwide have never been greater and the US resettlement programme is one of the most important in the world," the two agencies said in a joint statement.
foreign.desk@thenational.ae
Taimur Khan reported from Abu Dhabi
* With Reuters
