Feb. 2 (UPI) — The Department of Homeland Security’s Office of Inspector General said it will conduct a review of President Donald Trump‘s executive order that temporarily bans travel from seven countries made up of mostly Muslim populations.
The agency late Wednesday said it would “review DHS’ implementation” of Trump’s recent executive order “in response to congressional requests and whistleblower and hotline complaints.” Protests throughout the United States and in some parts of the world erupted after Trump enacted the measure some have likened to a “Muslim Ban.”
Trump ordered a travel ban on Friday in an executive order that prohibited all refugees from entering the United States for 120 days, banned Syrian refugees indefinitely and for 90 days banned entry by people from seven mostly Muslim countries: Iran, Sudan, Libya, Yemen, Somalia, Iraq and Syria.
Implementation of the order caused some chaos in U.S. airports as security officials attempted to enforce the executive order without much forewarning. U.S. District Judge Ann Donnelly on Saturday night temporarily and partially blocked Trump’s executive order with an injunction.
Trump said he signed off on the executive order to protect U.S. security.
“Everybody is arguing whether or not it is a BAN. Call it what you want, it is about keeping bad people (with bad intentions) out of country!” Trump tweeted on Wednesday.
Trump’s administration faces battling Donnelly’s injunction and dozens of lawsuits brought by states, civilians and nongovernmental organizations such as the American Civil Liberties Union.
Following Donnelly’s ruling, the ACLU hailed the action as a victory.
“This ruling preserves the status quo and ensures that people who have been granted permission to be in this country are not illegally removed off U.S. soil,” Lee Gelernt, deputy director of the ACLU’s Immigrants’ Rights Project, then said.
