A petition set up on a British government website calling for U.S. President Donald Trump to be barred from visiting the country has attracted hundreds of thousands of signatures, qualifying it for a parliamentary debate.
Trump has drawn widespread condemnation in Britain for his ban on refugees and people from selected Muslim-majority countries from entering the U.S.
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On Friday, during a state visit to Washington, Prime Minister Theresa May said Queen Elizabeth had invited Trump to England for a state visit, spurring on the petition titled “Prevent Donald Trump from making a State Visit to the United Kingdom.”
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The petition says the president’s “well documented misogyny and vulgarity” should disqualify him from being received by either by the Queen for fear it would “cause an embarrassment.”
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The website says parliament considers all petitions that get more than 100,000 signatures for debate. At time of publishing, the petition had garnered over 509,000 signatures.
The Department of Homeland Security said about 375 travelers had been affected by the order, 109 of whom were in transit and were denied entry to the United States. Another 173 were stopped by airlines before boarding.
The move sparked confusion and anger Saturday after immigrants and refugees were kept off flights and left stranded in airports.
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The American Civil Liberties Union successfully argued for a temporary stay that allowed detained travelers to stay in the United States. However, the court action does not reverse Trump’s order.
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An email from Prime Minister Justin Trudeau‘s office late Saturday said that the U.S. has given assurances that Canadians with dual citizenship will not be turned away at the border.
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