Hurricane Trump: Germany, France gang up against US, as Judge blocks President Trump's orders.

Hurricane Trump: Germany, France gang up against US, as Judge blocks President Trump's orders

- The travel ban by President Donald
Trump has stirred some bad blood in the
international community.

- Germany says it disagrees with Trump's
policies.

- France has aligned with Germany's views
regarding what ha been termed
protectionism.

France and Germany have aligned
against President Donald Trump
following the announcement of travel
ban by his government.

A spokesman for Chancellor Angela
Merkel says the German leader believes
the Trump’s travel ban on people from
some Muslim-majority countries is
wrong.

After meeting on Saturday, the foreign
ministers of both nations, Jean-Marc
Ayrault and Germany’s Sigmar Gabriel,
said they hope to meet with the
Secretary of State nominee Rex
Tillerson. Ayrault said Trump’s order
on Friday that banning refugees “can
only worry us.”

“We have signed international
obligations, so welcoming refugees
fleeing war and oppression forms part of
our duties,” the French minister said.

“There are many other issues that worry
us,” he added. “That is why Sigmar and
I also discussed what we are going to do.

When our colleague, Tillerson, is
officially appointed, we will both contact
him.” Gabriel said offering refuge to the
persecuted are western values that
Europe and the United States share.
“Love thy neighbor is part of this
tradition, the act of helping others,” he
said. “This unites us, we Westerners.
“I think that this remains a common
foundation that we share with the
United States, one we aim to promote.”

Trump said the ban was necessary in
preventing “radical Islamic terrorists”
from entering the U.S. Merkel and
Trump spoke on Saturday for the first
time since his inauguration but there
was no mention of the travel ban or
refugees was mentioned in their joint
U.S.-German statement following the
call.

Germany’s dpa news agency quoted
Merkel’s spokesman Steffen Seibert
saying Sunday that “she is convinced
that even the necessary, resolute fight
against terrorism doesn’t justify putting
people of a particular origin or
particular faith under general
suspicion.”
A federal judge in New York has issued
an emergency stay temporarily halting
the removal of individuals detained
after President Trump issued an order
to ban immigrants from seven Muslim-
majority countries from entering the
U.S.

The move appears to mark the first
successful legal challenge to the Trump
administration and affects those who
have arrived in the U.S. with previously
approved refugee applications or were
in transit with valid visas. Similar
rulings were later issued in Virginia,
Massachusetts and Washington state.

U.S. District Court Judge Ann Donnelly
ruled in favor of a habeas corpus
petition filed by the American Civil
Liberties Union (ACLU) on behalf of two
Iraqi men who were detained at John F.
Kennedy International Airport on
Friday after Trump signed his order.
Donnelly, who was nominated by
former President Barack Obama and
confirmed to her judgeship in 2015,
ruled in the Eastern District of New York
that "there is imminent danger that,
absent the stay of removal, there will be
substantial and irreparable injury to
refugees, visa-holders, and other
individuals from nations subject" to
Trump's order.

“This ruling preserves the status quo and
ensures that people who have been
granted permission to be in this country
are not illegally removed off U.S. soil,"
said Lee Gelernt, deputy director of the
ACLU’s Immigrants’ Rights Project.