Nearly 2,000 people were stopped in 9 days under Trump's travel ban

Michal Kranz

  • The travel ban put forward by President Donald Trump at the beginning of last year via executive order led to 1,903 people being stopped by customs agents.

  • The majority of them were legal residents of the US.

  • While that travel ban was blocked by a judge in February 2017, Trump later issued two other travel bans, the second of which has been allowed to go forward by the Supreme Court.


President Donald Trump's travel ban caused 1,903 people to be stopped during the nine days it was enforced in early 2017, according to a newly public document, BuzzFeed reported.

The document, which was released under a Freedom of Information Act request, shows that the majority of the people stopped, 1,457 of them, were legal permanent residents of the US. Of those who were not permanent residents, 134 withdrew their entry request, which means they likely had to leave the country. Another 446 people were reportedly sent to secondary inspection.

Trump abruptly put the travel ban into place via an executive order in January 2017 soon after he took office, and it suspended the visas of people from seven Muslim-majority countries in the Middle East and Africa. The ban was halted by a judge in early February, placing a temporary restraining order on its enforcement nationwide.

While the Department of Homeland Security had initially stated that legal permanent residents were not included as part of the travel ban, the White House overruled the department and said it would review their entry on a case-by-case basis.

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In addition to individuals being stopped at airports and border crossings, 10 people were reportedly detained aboard a boat in American waters.

Trump has tried several times to reframe the ban, but was met with legal challenges each time. A second, narrower travel ban was also blocked last year, but a third travel ban, issued in September, was allowed to move forward by the Supreme Court. But even this travel ban is still under legal consideration, and the Supreme Court is set to hear arguments on it this month, according to BuzzFeed.

Several federal courts have declared this third travel ban unconstitutional, and a federal appeals court joined the chorus of opposition in February.

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