Travelers were denied access into the United States and detained at Sea-Tac Airport Saturday, hours after President Donald Trump signed an executive order banning certain groups \u2014 based on religion and nationality \u2014 from the country.
\u201cWe have a family here today, a citizen of the United States, the Donald Trump administration allowed her husband to get on a plane in Vienna, waiting to get into the arms of his wife, but didn\u2019t let him go the six feet across this gate to embrace his wife,\u201d said Washington Governor Jay Inslee. \u201cWhat type of cruel attitude based on demagoguery and fear does that to people? To anybody?\u201d
Inslee called Trump\u2019s executive order unconstitutional, illegal, and \u201creligious discrimination in its barest and obvious form.\u201d
\u201cThe manifest and unjustifiable chaos and cruelty caused by President Trump\u2019s executive order is now on full display here at Sea-Tac Airport,\u201d Jay Inslee said Saturday.
Related: Seattle Mayor Murray defies Trump\u2019s \u201cauthoritarian order\u201d
On Friday, President Trump signed an executive order banning entry into the United States by residents of Iraq, Syria, Iran, Sudan, Libya, Somalia and Yemen. It includes refugees. It also orders that Christians and other religious minorities will be given priority over Muslims when vetting refugees.
Under the order, refugees are prevented from entering the country for 120 days while federal officials come up with vetting procedures to ensure they pose no threat. Syrian refugees are blocked indefinitely. Trump calls the measure part of extreme vetting to keep radical Islamic terrorists out of the country.
Shortly after Trump signed the order, Canada\u2019s government went the other way saying it will still accept refugees and not discriminate based on religion.
Washington state elected officials held a press conference at Sea-Tac Saturday afternoon in the wake of several people being held at the airport, denied entry into the United States. Officials were clearly disturbed by what was happening. It is unknown exactly how many have been held back, but reports indicate as many as 13. Some detainees were flown out of the country on deportation orders at 5 p.m., the Seattle PI reports .
Sea-Tac is not the only airport affected. There are reports of similar situations around the country where refugees have been detained or turned away.
Governor Inslee and airport officials said that they were given no notice of Trump\u2019s plans and were not able to prepare. The order was signed after planes were already in the air and headed to the United States. Of the airlines affected, British Airways, Delta, Eva Air, and Emirates had people on board who have been held.
\u201cThese people couldn\u2019t run a two-car funeral,\u201d Inslee said of Trump\u2019s administration.
Inslee has called the White House to express his \u201cprofound disappointment.\u201d He has also met with the state attorney general to pursue legal action, but notes that it will be difficult as the Trump administration will not inform the governor about the characteristics of the people detained in his own state.
\u201cThese aren\u2019t just refugees,\u201d Inslee said. \u201cThese are business people who might be in the technology sector, or physicians. They can\u2019t leave the country now because they can\u2019t get back in. Even though they are legally here in this country. This is damaging to the economy of my state. It is unacceptable.\u201d
Lt. Governor Cyrus Habib said that he too worries for the economy of Washington state. He reports that Microsoft has at least 70 local employees who will be affected by this executive order. He noted that his family would have also been affected by the order. His parents escaped Iran in the \u201970s, and his father had permanent residency until about 20 years ago while he worked at Boeing. But his father would be detained under Trump\u2019s order, he said.
King County Executive Dow Constantine also commented on how the \u201ccruel\u201d executive order will affect the region\u2019s economy, pointing out that major companies such as Boeing, Starbucks and Microsoft are international companies with an international workforce.
\u201cThese actions not only target those individuals, but these companies and their ability to compete on the world stage,\u201d Constantine said. \u201cIt is not only cruel, it is not only grossly un-American, it is economic sabotage. This is a betrayal of who we are and what makes America truly great.\u201d
Constantine didn\u2019t just speak to the logical, economic aspects of Trump\u2019s executive order at Sea-Tac.
\u201cThis is chilling,\u201d Constantine said. \u201cIf you are frightened by this, if it somehow reminds you of a history we thought we put behind us, you are right to be frightened. The first week of this administration, it has done more damage to America\u2019s prospects and its position in the world than any terrorist acting alone can hope to do.\u201d
\u201cInstead of being the hope of humanity, what this country has always held itself to be, we are turning our back on those who need us must \u2013 people feeling oppression and violence,\u201d he said.
Inslee noted that he lives on Bainbridge Island where Japanese citizens and immigrants were first taken from their homes and forced into internment camps \u2014 also under an executive order. He knows such history well, and said it was repeating itself through President Trump.
\u201cLet\u2019s hope common sense and humanity is restored in this country in the next few hours,\u201d Inslee said.
Seattle Mayor Ed Murray has also called upon the history of the Japanese interment camps that have since left an embarrassing scar on American history. On Wednesday, he defied another of Trump\u2019s executive orders for immigration that targeted sanctuary cities like Seattle.
\u201cOn Wednesday, the authoritarian hand of an authoritarian government came down on cities,\u201d Murray said. \u201cToday, that same authoritarian hand, of that authoritarian government came down on immigrants and refuges throughout the world.\u201d<\/p>\n

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