Oscar-nominated Iranian director is blocked from attending awards ceremony, seven U.S.-bound migrants are stopped in Cairo and two refugees are held in JFK as Trump's immigration ban kicks in
An Iranian director nominated for an Oscar won't be able to attend the Hollywood award ceremony after Donald Trump signed off on his tough new immigration bans.
PHOTO: Award-winning Iranian director Asghar Farhadi, who is nominated for an Oscar for his film The Salesman, won't be able to attend after Donald Trump introduced tough new immigration bans
Asghar Farhadi is nominated in the best foreign film category for his film The Salesman but there are fears he may now not be able to attend next month's Academy Awards.
His native Iran, which is where The Salesman was filmed, is one of seven countries listed in Trump's executive order that has placed a 90-day pause on visas and immigration to the U.S.
Trita Parsi, president of the National Iranian American Council, tweeted on Saturday morning that Farhadi would be banned.
'Iran's Asghar Farhadi won't be let into the US to attend Oscar's. He's nominated for best foreign language film... #MuslimBan,' he wrote.
It comes as visa, green card holders and refugees were blocked from entering the United States just hours after Trump signed the order on Friday afternoon.
PHOTO: Asghar Farhadi is nominated in the best foreign film category for his film The Salesman, which was filmed in his native Iran
Seven migrants - six from Iraq and one from Yemen - were stopped from boarding a flight from Cairo on Saturday, while at least two Iraqis were detained after flying in to New York's JFK airport on Friday night.
Panic broke out after Department of Homeland Security issued a directive at 4.30pm on Friday enforcing Trump's executive order to essentially close down the borders to refugees and visa holders from a list of banned Muslim-majority countries.
In addition to Iran, the other countries on Trump's blacklist are Iraq, Syria, Sudan, Libya, Yemen and Somalia.
An Iranian-born actress who stars in Farhadi's The Salesman vowed to boycott the Oscars over Trump's immigration bans.
Taraneh Alidoosti, the 33-year-old known as the Natalie Portman of Iran, took to Twitter with a message for fans on Thursday.
PHOTO: Trita Parsi, president of the National Iranian American Council, tweeted on Saturday morning that Farhadi would be banned
'Trump's visa ban for Iranians is racist. Whether this will include a cultural event or not, I won't attend the #AcademyAwards 2017 in protest,' she tweeted. Farhadi won an Oscar in 2012 for his film A Separation.
The visa ban has sparked legal limbo for some refugees already who were on their way to the U.S. when the order came into effect.
Two Iraqi refugees, including one who had worked for the U.S. government in Iraq for 10 years, were detained at New York's JFK airport on Friday, The New York Times reports. The two men were on separate flights when immigration officials stopped them
Hameed Khalid Darweesh, who had worked as a interpreter with the U.S. Army in Iraq, was travelling with his wife and three children at the time.
The other man, Haider Sameer Abdulkhaleq Alshawi, was flying to American to join his wife and son in Texas.
PHOTO: President Donald Trump signed an executive order on Friday afternoon providing for 'extreme vetting' of immigrants and visa holders
Lawyers representing the two Iraqi men were desperately seeking to have their clients released in court on Saturday morning.
Cairo airport officials say seven U.S.-bound migrants - six from Iraq and one from Yemen - were prevented from boarding an EgyptAir flight to New York's JFK airport.
The officials said the seven migrants, escorted by officials from the U.N. refugee agency, were stopped from boarding the plane on Saturday after authorities at Cairo airport contacted their counterparts in JFK airport.
The action at Cairo airport was the first there since Trump imposed the three-month ban on refugees.
It is not clear how many refugees or visa holders are already being detained across the country.
PHOTO: Farhadi's native Iran, which is where The Salesman was filmed, is one of seven countries listed in Trump's executive order that has placed a 90-day pause on visas and immigration to the U.S.
The Arab-American Anti-Discrimination Committee said there was chaos at airports and in the air following Trump's ban with the organization already receiving calls for help from green card and other visa holders after being boarding and admission into the United States at the airport.
'Visas being denied immediately. Chaos at airports and in the air. #MuslimBan will apply to green card holders attempting to return tonight,' the ADC's Abed Ayoub tweeted on Friday night.
Trump's ban puts a 90-day pause on visas and immigration from seven countries including Iraq, Syria, Sudan, Iran, Libya, Yemen and Somalia.
The order also puts a 120-day ban on all refugee entries into the country and declares that refugees from Syria are not welcome until further notice
PHOTO: The Iranian star of Oscar-nominated film The Salesman has already said she is boycotting the Oscars in protest at President Donald Trump's 'racist' ban on Muslim immigrants
After that period of time, refugees will be accepted only from countries that the State and Homeland Security Departments decide are safe to work with.
It also provides a list of possible mechanisms for 'vetting' prospective immigrants and catching those 'seeking to enter the United States on a fraudulent basis with the intent to cause harm, or who are at risk of causing harm subsequent to their admission.'
Google urged its staff travelling overseas on Friday to immediately return to the U.S. if they would be affected by the order.
CEO Sundar Pichai issued a memo slamming Trump's order saying 100 employees were affected, Bloomberg reports.
The tech company feared its employees, even though they have valid visas, would be stopped from returning to the country.
PHOTO: Trump's immigration ban has angered activists (pictured in New York on Friday) with the U.S. banning all refugee entries for 120 days
Facebook's Mark Zuckerberg hit out at Trump condemning his anti-immigration bans. 'The United States is a nation of immigrants, and we should be proud of that,' Zuckerberg said.
It follows reports that Muslim-majority countries with ties to Trump's business empire have excluded from the order.
Statistics show Trump doesn't have any business relations with the seven black-listed countries, but does with Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Egypt and Turkey, the NY Daily News reports.
Trump's order declares that U.S. policy is 'to protect its citizens from foreign nationals who intend to commit terrorist attacks in the United States; and to prevent the admission of foreign nationals who intend to exploit United States immigration laws for malevolent purposes.'
PHOTO: Trump, pictured with the executive order on Air Force One on Thursday, has put a 90-day pause on visas and immigration from seven countries including Iraq and Syria
It also gives Homeland Security 60 days to begin providing the president with the names of other countries to add to the list.
The nation will limit the total refugee resettlement numbers to 50,000 per year, according to the order.
Trump's executive order declares that the U.S. will 'prioritize refugee claims made by individuals on the basis of religious-based persecution.' But that only applies when 'the religion of the individual is a minority religion in the individual's country of nationality.'
PHOTO: The U.S. has resettled tens of thousands of refugees from warn-torn Syria, something the Trump administration will indefinitely pause out of fears that jihadis will lurk among them
The International Rescue Committee called President Trump's suspension of the U.S. refugee resettlement program a 'harmful and hasty' decision.
In a statement issued late Friday night after the suspension was announced, IRC President David Miliband said: 'America must remain true to its core values. America must remain a beacon of hope.
PHOTO: Google CEO Sundar Pichai urged its staff travelling overseas on Friday to immediately return to the U.S. if they would be affected by the order
The IRC statement declared that the U.S. vetting process for prospective refugees is already robust - involving biometric screening and up to 36 months of vetting by '12 to 15 government agencies.'
PHOTO: Demonstrators took part in a rally in support of Muslims and immigrants in New York on Friday ahead of Trump's executive order
Miliband praised U.S.'s record as a resettlement destination and said: 'This is no time for America to turn its back on people ready to become patriotic Americans.'
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