Executive Order 13769: The First Travel Ban

The Order

On January 27, 2017, President Trump signed Executive Order 13769, titled “Protecting the Nation from Foreign Terrorist Entry into the United States.” The order immediately suspended entry into the United States for nationals from Iran, Iraq, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria, and Yemen for 90 days. It also suspended the entire U.S. Refugee Admissions Program for 120 days and indefinitely barred Syrian refugees.

Immediate Chaos

The order was signed on a Friday afternoon and took effect immediately, with no advance warning to the agencies responsible for enforcement. Travelers who were already in the air when the order was signed were detained upon landing at U.S. airports.

Scenes of confusion erupted at airports across the country. Green card holders — lawful permanent residents of the United States — were detained and questioned. Families were separated. Interpreters who had risked their lives working alongside U.S. forces in Iraq were turned away.

Legal Challenges

Within 24 hours, the ACLU and other organizations filed emergency legal challenges. Federal judge Ann Donnelly in Brooklyn issued the first nationwide injunction blocking deportations under the order.

Ultimately, after multiple revisions and legal battles, the Supreme Court upheld a third version of the ban in Trump v. Hawaii (2018) in a 5-4 decision, though the ruling was widely criticized as echoing the reasoning of Korematsu v. United States, the infamous Japanese internment case.