This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2017, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.
Refugees who had been blocked from entering the United States will begin arriving in Utah after a federal judge ordered a temporary stay of President Donald Trump's immigration ban.
Two Iraqi refugees who have helped U.S. armed forces should arrive Tuesday, said Aden Batar, director of immigration and refugee resettlement for Catholic Community Services of Utah.
A Somali refugee is scheduled to arrive Thursday, and 13 refugees from Congo are set to land in Salt Lake City on Feb. 13 — if the injunction remains in place.
They are among 68 refugees — sponsored by Catholic Community Services and the International Rescue Committee of Utah — who were to have immigrated to Utah but were blocked by the ban.
A spokeswoman for the International Rescue Committee could not be reached Monday for comment.
About 60,000 U.S. visa holders were affected by the White House order, according to the State Department.
On Friday in Seattle, U.S. District Judge James Robart ordered the nationwide stay on the travel ban, ruling that the plaintiffs — the attorneys general of Washington state and Minnesota — "have met their burden of demonstrating that they face immediate and irreparable injury as a result of the signing and implementation of the executive order."
Trump's executive order, Robart said, adversely affects "residents in areas of employment, education, business, family relations and freedom to travel."
The Trump administration appealed the order to the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco late Saturday. The Justice Department argued against Robart's injunction: It "contravenes the considered judgment of Congress that the president should have the unreviewable authority to suspend the admission of any class of aliens," it said. "Unlike the president, courts do not have access to classified information about the threat posed by terrorist organizations operating in particular nations, the efforts of those organizations to infiltrate the United States or gaps in the vetting process."
The appeals court said it would not rule on whether to lift the stay until it receives legal arguments from both sides.
Until the 9th Circuit Court rules, refugees will continue to enter the country.
"This will be good news for people who will be reunited with loved ones," Batar said. "We don't want our refugees to be warehoused in camps."
About 1,200 refugees a year are sponsored in Utah by Catholic Community Services and the International Rescue Committee.
President Barack Obama's administration had allowed 110,000 refugees to enter the country annually. The Trump administration, however, has said it will set the limit at 50,000 after the temporary ban expires four months from now.
Since 1980, Batar said, the U.S. has welcomed 3 million refugees.
During his successful presidential campaign, Trump called for a ban on Muslims entering the country. Recently, he said that the 120-day travel ban was not aimed at Muslims but sought additional protections from people entering from seven countries — Iran, Iraq, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria and Yemen — where Islam is the predominant religion. The action was necessary, the president said, to protect Americans from extremist Islamic militants.
Meanwhile, a resolution has been introduced in the Utah Legislature by Sen. Brian Shiozawa, R-Cottonwood Heights, that seeks to "protect the civil liberties, religious freedoms and dignity of all Americans, legal immigrants and refugees of goodwill seeking protection against persecution."
It specifically warns against any attempt to criminalize groups of individuals, including Jews, Christians, Muslims, Buddhists and other universal faiths.
A vote has not yet been scheduled.