Donald Trump

When President Trump signed an executive order on Friday, banning refugees from traveling to the U.S. from 7 Muslim countries, green card holders in America assumed they were exempt.

Green card holders and visa holders returning to the U.S. after visiting family in the Middle East are being detained by Homeland Security at airports around the country.

Green card holders (your auntie included) are legal permanent residents of the United States. While we can’t vote or sit on a jury, we pay our taxes and we are productive members of society.

Trump’s order bans Syrian refugees from traveling to the U.S. for 120 days — including Syrians who are green card holders returning home from the Middle East.

On Saturday night, a federal judge who was appointed by former President Obama granted an emergency stay to temporarily allow travelers with visas to stay in the country.

The stay only affects travelers who are being detained at airports in the U.S., not those being detained at airports in the Middle East.

The federal stay was in response to a class action lawsuit filed Saturday by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU). The lawsuit asked the federal court to block deportations of people stranded at airports around the country.

Hundreds of protestors gathered outside Terminal 4 at JFK airport in Queens, NY, where an unknown number of travelers are being detained inside.

“We’ve gotten reports of people being detained all over the country,” said Becca Heller, the director of the International Refugee Assistance Project. “They’re literally pouring in by the minute.”

On Saturday, President Trump told reporters his executive order was “not a Muslim ban” and it was “working out very nicely”.