Trump's travel ban jolts globe, leads to legal fight

NEW YORK (AP) — President Donald Trump's decision to suspend the U.S. Refugee Admissions Program for 120 days and institute a 90-day ban on all entry to the United States from citizens of seven predominantly Muslim countries has sent ripples across the globe, provoked a political reaction at home and led to high-stakes legal maneuvering.

Travelers of all types, including tourists, students, immigrants and people returning from vacations, were detained at airports after arriving in the U.S. Some remained in custody overnight.

Acting Attorney General Sally Yates, a Democratic appointee, directed Justice Department attorneys Monday not to defend Trump's executive order, saying she was not convinced it was lawful.

Experts said the temporary ban's legality hinges on questions of a president's authority to control borders and whether the policy discriminates against Muslims.

Federal judges in New York and several other states issued orders temporarily blocking the government from deporting people with valid visas.

The Council on American-Islamic Relations also is arguing in a lawsuit that the ban violates the First Amendment's bar of preferential treatment for a religion by appearing to favor Christian over Muslim refugees.

Dissenting diplomats at the State Department were circulating a draft memo Monday lambasting the travel ban, saying it wouldn't make the country safer and would stand "in opposition to the core American and constitutional values that we, as federal employees, took an oath to uphold."

According to a draft document obtained by The Associated Press, Trump is now considering an executive order calling for the identification and removal "as expeditiously as possible" of any foreigner from the U.S. who takes certain kinds of public welfare benefits.