Judge's order gives hope to two Minnesota families
Members of two Minnesota families are hopeful that a temporary block of president Trump's travel ban will give them enough time to be reunited with their loved ones.
The family members had filed a joint lawsuit seeking to overturn the executive order which went into effect last week and sparked protests at airports around the country.
According to a separate lawsuit filed Friday in the District of Columbia, Farshid Zadeh and his wife Samaneh Raghimi were flying back from Tehran on Jan. 27th, the day Trump signed the executive order establishing new travel restrictions.
Zadeh is a legal permanent U.S. resident. Raghimi is an Iranian citizen who had received a visa in 2016.
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"When they landed in Amsterdam, they were informed that Mrs. Raghimi would not be allowed to be able to continue on to the United States," said attorney Kevin Riach.
Zadeh continued on to the U.S. Raghimi flew back to Tehran.
Riach said now that Trump's travel ban has been temporarily halted, Raghimi is preparing to fly back to Minnesota to be with her husband Monday. He said the two were married in 2013, but it's taken several years for Raghimi to get the proper documentation to get into the country.
Riach said Zadeh is hopeful about reuniting with his wife.
But, "There is concern that something will happen that would prevent her from coming, even though right now it looks like she'll be allowed to come to Minneapolis," said Riach. "If the last two weeks have shown us anything, it's that anything can happen."
Mohamed Iye was born in Somalia, but became a US citizen in 2010. According to the lawsuit, he married Saido Abdille, who is a citizen of Somalia in 2011. The couple has two children together.
The lawsuit says Abdille had recently completed five years of screening in order to get a visa to come to the U.S. However, she was blocked from flying to the U.S. with the children the day after Trump signed the executive order.
Iye's attorney, Abdinasir Abdulahi said he expects Abdille to land in Minnesota Sunday afternoon.