Trump travel ban: Still a ‘couple of dozen’ people detained, says Reince Priebus

WASHINGTON – The White House on Sunday defended its implementation of President Donald Trump‘s executive action targeting immigration from seven predominantly Muslim countries and said only two dozen travelers remain detained.

“It wasn’t chaos,” Chief of Staff Reince Priebus said on NBC’s Meet the Press program, adding that 325,000 travelers entered the United States on Saturday and 109 of them were detained.

“Most of those people were moved out. We’ve got a couple dozen more that remain and I would suspect that as long as they’re not awful people that they will move through before another half a day today,” he said.

Tweet This Click to share quote on Twitter: "Most of those people were moved out. We've got a couple dozen more that remain and I would suspect that as long as they're not awful people that they will move through before another half a day today," he said.

Conflicting media and government reports caused confusion for airlines struggling to deal with the order Saturday.

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CBP informed air carriers about the executive order in a conference call late on Friday, said a person familiar with the agency’s communications. CBP then sent written guidance before noon on Saturday saying that green card holders were “not included” in the ban and could continue to travel to the United States. The source said airlines were allowing travelers with green cards on flights until told otherwise.

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The Trump administration official later told reporters that U.S. green card holders traveling outside the United States need to check with a U.S. consulate to see whether they can return.

“It’s being cleared on a case-by-case basis,” the official said.

Tweet This Click to share quote on Twitter: "It's being cleared on a case-by-case basis," the official said.

The green card issue has left immigration attorneys confused about how to advise their clients. Attorney David Leopold, from Cleveland, Ohio, said he is erring on the side of caution, advising his clients to stay in the United States to avoid being stranded abroad.

That can create some agonizing dilemmas.

“A Syrian doctor who has a dying mother in Europe cannot go visit her not knowing that he will be able to get back into the United States,” Leopold said.