Trump: U.S.

will win
appeal of judge's
travel ban order

By Yeganeh Torbati and Steve

Holland | WASHINGTON/PALM BEACH, FLA

U.S. President Donald Trump said the

Justice Department will win an appeal filed
late Saturday of a judge's order lifting a
travel ban he had imposed on citizens of
seven mainly Muslim countries.

"We'll win. For the safety of the country, we'll

win," he told reporters at his private Mar-a-
Lago resort in Palm Beach, Florida shortly
after the Justice Department filed a notice
that it intends to appeal the order.

Trump's personal attack on U.S. District

Judge James Robart in Seattle went too far
for some, who said the president was
undermining an institution designed to check
the power of the White House and Congress.

As the ban lifted, refugees and thousands of

travelers from Iran, Iraq, Libya, Somalia,
Sudan, Syria and Yemen who had been
stopped in their tracks last weekend by
Trump's executive order scrambled to get
flights to quickly enter the United States.

The Justice Department did not say when it

would file its appeal with the Ninth Circuit
U.S. Court of Appeals of the ruling made by
Robart late on Friday that also lifted Trump's
temporary ban imposed on refugee
admissions.
The judge appointed by former Republican
President George W. Bush questioned the
constitutionality of Trump's order.

The three-judge panel that will decide

whether to immediately block the ruling
includes appointees of George W. Bush and
two former Democratic presidents, Jimmy
Carter and Barack Obama.

"The opinion of this so-called judge, which

essentially takes law-enforcement away from
our country, is ridiculous and will be
overturned!" Trump said on Twitter early on
Saturday. Trump has said "extreme vetting"
of refugees and immigrants is needed to
prevent terrorist attacks.

Throughout the day, Trump continued to

criticize the decision in tweets. Late
Saturday, Trump showed no signs of backing
down. "The judge opens up our country to
potential terrorists and others that do not
have our best interests at heart. Bad people
are very happy!" he tweeted.

Trumps tweets criticizing the judges

decision could make it tougher for Justice
Department attorneys as they seek to defend
the executive order in Washington state and
other courts, said Jonathan Turley, a law
professor at George Washington University,
adding that presidents are usually
circumspect about commenting on
government litigation.

"Its hard for the President to demand that

courts respect his inherent authority when
he is disrespecting the inherent authority of
the judiciary. That certainly tends to poison
the well for litigation," Turley said.

SEPARATION OF POWERS

It is unusual for a president to attack a

member of the judiciary, which the U.S.
Constitution designates as a check to the
 power of the executive branch and
Congress.
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Reached by email Saturday, Robart declined
comment on Trump's tweets.

Democratic U.S. Senator Patrick Leahy of

Vermont said in a statement Saturday that
Trump's "hostility toward the rule of law is not
just embarrassing, it is dangerous. He
seems intent on precipitating a constitutional
crisis."

"Read the 'so-called' Constitution," tweeted

Representative Adam Schiff, the top
 Democrat on the House Intelligence
committee.

In an interview with ABC scheduled to air on

Sunday, Vice President Mike Pence said he
did not think that Trump's criticisms of the
judge undermined the separation of powers.
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"I think the American people are very
accustomed to this president speaking his
mind and speaking very straight with them,"
Pence said, according to an excerpt of the
interview.
 The court ruling was the first move in what
could be months of legal challenges to
Trump's push to clamp down on immigration.
His order set off chaos last week at airports
across the United States where travelers
were stranded and thousands of people
gathered to protest.

Americans are divided over Trump's order. A

Reuters/Ipsos poll this week showed 49
percent favored it while 41 percent did not.

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Iraqi refugee Nizar Kassab and his family pose for pictures with their
passports in their temporary home in Beirut, Lebanon February 4,
2017. REUTERS/ Jamal Saidi
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Wes Parker, a retiree from Long Beach,

California, held a sign saying "Trump is love"
at the Los Angeles International Airport, and
said he supported the tighter measures.

"We just have to support the travel pause,"

said Parker, 62. "If you were a new president
coming in, wouldn't you want what you feel
safe with?"
Rights groups, Democrats and U.S. allies
have condemned the travel ban as
discriminatory. On Saturday, there were
protests against the immigrant curb in
Washington, New York, Los Angeles and
other cities.

At the White House, hundreds of protesters

chanted "Donald, Donald can't you see?
You're not welcome in D.C."
TRAVELERS MOVE WITH HASTE

The sudden reversal of the ban catapulted

would-be immigrants back to airports, with
uncertainty over how long the window to
enter the United States will remain open.

U.S. immigration advocacy groups including

the American Civil Liberties Union on
Saturday urged those with now valid visas
from the seven nations "to consider
rebooking travel to the United States
immediately" because the ruling could be
overturned or put on hold, while a U.S. State
Department official said the department
planned to admit refugees on Monday.

In Erbil, the capital of the Kurdish region of

northern Iraq, Fuad Sharef and his family
prepared to fly on Saturday to Istanbul and
then New York before starting a new life in
Nashville, Tennessee.

"I am very happy that we are going to travel

today. Finally, we made it," said Sharef, who
was stopped from boarding a New York-
bound flight last week.

The Department of Homeland Security said

on Saturday it would return to its normal
procedures for screening travelers but that
the Justice Department would file for an
emergency stay of the order "at the earliest
possible time."

Some travelers told Reuters they were

cautious about the sudden change.
"I will not say if I have hope or not. I wait,
watch and then I build my hopes," said
Josephine Abu Assaleh, 60, who was
stopped from entering the United States after
landing in Philadelphia last week with five
members of her family.

"We left the matter with the lawyers. When

they tell us the decision has been canceled,
we will decide whether to go back or not,"
she told Reuters in Damascus, speaking by
telephone.

Virtually all refugees also were barred by

Trump's order, upending the lives of
thousands of people who have spent years
seeking asylum in the United States.

Friday night's court decision sent refugee

advocacy and resettlement agencies
scrambling to help people in the pipeline.

Iraqi refugee Nizar al-Qassab, 52, told

Reuters in Lebanon that his family had been
due to travel to the United States for
resettlement on Jan. 31. The trip was
canceled two days before that and he was
now waiting for a phone call from U.N.
officials overseeing their case.

"It's in God's hands," he said.

(Additional reporting by Issam Abdullah in

Beirut, Dan Levine in Seattle, Alana Wise in
New York, Robert Chiarito and Nathan
Layne in Chicago, Daina Beth Solomon in
Los Angeles, and Julia Edwards Ainsley in
Washington; Writing by Roberta Rampton
and David Shepardson; Editing by Bill
Trott,Mary Milliken and Diane Craft)