(CNN) — A federal judge granted an emergency stay Saturday night for citizens of seven Muslim-majority countries who have already arrived in the US and those who are in transit, and who hold valid visas, ruling they can legally enter the US.

The decision halts part of President Donald Trump’s executive order, which barred citizens from those countries from entering the US for the next 90 days.

Trump signed two executive actions Friday at the Department of Defense, including one that suspends indefinitely admissions for Syrian refugees and limits the flow of other refugees into the United States by instituting what the President has called “extreme vetting” of immigrants.

Titled “Protection Of The Nation From Foreign Terrorist Entry Into The United States,” the executive order would start to make good on Trump’s promise to tighten borders and halt certain refugees from entering the United States.

The text of the order — in a break from drafts that had been circulating earlier this week — drops a longtime Trump campaign pledge to establish safe zones in Syria to give Syrian nationals displaced by the ongoing civil war in the country a place to relocate.

The order bars all persons from certain terror-prone countries from entering the United States for 30 days and suspends the US Refugee Admissions Program for 120 days until it is reinstated “only for nationals of countries for whom” members of Trump’s Cabinet deem can be properly vetted. </s> WASHINGTON The U.S. State Department on Saturday moved to begin admitting refugees, including Syrians, as soon as Monday after a federal judge on Friday blocked a Trump administration temporary ban on refugee admissions.An email from the State Department's refugee office reviewed by Reuters Saturday said the U.S. government is working with its legal team and interagency and overseas partners to comply with the ruling. </s> The Trump administration has had its restrictive policy on refugees upheld by the Supreme Court.

A ruling to ease the policy, which would have allowed up to 24,000 refugees to enter the US before the end of October, was blocked by the justices.

People from Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria and Yemen are banned from entering the US due to the ban.

The court will hear further arguments on the policy first rolled out by President Donald Trump in January 2017 next month. The justices will listen to the two sides to decipher the legality of the bans on travellers from six mainly Muslim countries. </s> President Donald Trump on Friday intended to sign an executive action Friday temporarily halting the flow of refugees into the United Sates and stopping all entries from some majority-Muslim nations, his spokesman said.

A draft of the order obtained by The Associated Press also includes an indefinite ban on accepting Syrian refugees, and the pause in the broader refugee program extends for 120 days.

Trump campaigned on a pledge to put in place "extreme vetting" procedures particularly for people coming to the U.S. from countries with terrorism ties. According to the draft order, the president plans to suspend issuing visas for people from Iran, Iraq, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria or Yemen for at least 30 days.

White House spokesman Sean Spicer said Trump intended to sign the order during a Friday afternoon visit to the Pentagon, along with actions related to military readiness and the National Security Council. Details of those directives were not immediately clear.

While at the Pentagon, Trump was expected to meet with the Joint Chiefs of Staff and attend a ceremonial swearing-in for Defense Secretary James Mattis.

Trump has the authority to determine how many refugees are accepted annually; he can suspend the program at any time. Refugee processing was suspended in the immediate aftermath of the Sept. 11 attacks and restarted months later.

During the last budget year, the U.S. accepted 84,995 refugees, including 12,587 people from Syria. President Barack Obama had set the refugee limit for this budget year at 110,000.

Trump, according to the impending executive order, planned to cut that program by more half to 50,000. The draft order said while the program is suspended, the U.S. may admit people on a case-by-case basis "when in the national interest" and the government would continue to process refugee requests from people claiming religious persecution, "provided that the religion ... is a minority religion in the individual's country." That suggests that would allow the admission of Christians from Muslim-majority countries. </s> WASHINGTON -- The Supreme Court is allowing the Trump administration to maintain its restrictive policy on refugees.

The justices on Tuesday agreed to an administration request to block a lower court ruling that would have eased the refugee ban and allowed up to 24,000 refugees to enter the country before the end of October.

The order was not the court's last word on the travel policy that President Trump first rolled out in January. The justices are scheduled to hear arguments on Oct. 10 on the legality of the bans on travelers from six mostly Muslim countries and refugees anywhere in the world.

It's unclear, though, what will be left for the court to decide. The 90-day travel ban lapses in late September and the 120-day refugee ban will expire a month later.

The administration has yet to say whether it will seek to renew the bans, make them permanent or expand the travel ban to other countries.

Lower courts have ruled that the bans violate the Constitution and federal immigration law. The high court has agreed to review those rulings. Its intervention so far has been to evaluate what parts of the policy can take effect in the meantime.

The justices said in June that the administration could not enforce the bans against people who have a "bona fide" relationship with people or entities in the United States. The justices declined to define the required relationships more precisely.

A panel of the San Francisco-based 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals upheld a district judge's order that would have allowed refugees to enter the United States if a resettlement agency in the U.S. had agreed to take them in.

The administration objected, saying the relationship between refugees and resettlement agencies shouldn't count. The high court's unsigned, one-sentence order agreed with the administration, at least for now.

The appeals court also upheld another part of the judge's ruling that applies to the ban on visitors from Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria and Yemen.

Grandparents and cousins of people already in the U.S. can't be excluded from the country under the travel ban, as the Trump administration had wanted. The administration did not ask the Supreme Court to block that part of the ruling. </s> The White House is planning to increase the number of refugees accepted into the United States from around the world to at least 110,000 in 2017, a senior administration official told CNN.

Secretary of State John Kerry briefed Congress on Tuesday about the administration's decision and has stated over the past year that the United States would seek to welcome 100,000 refugees in 2017 -- and if possible, would accept more.

The increase -- from 70,000 during 2013-2015 to 85,000 in 2016 to the plan of 110,000 in 2017 -- is more than a 57% increase in refugee arrivals since 2015 and consistent with the administration's belief that all countries should do more to help vulnerable people.

The United States' refugee policy has been a top campaign issue in the 2016 election. Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump made waves last December when he proposed a temporary ban on all Muslims immigrating to the United States.

Hillary Clinton, the Democratic nominee, has said that she would like to see the number of Syrian refugees accepted into the United States increase from the Obama administration's goal of 10,000 a year to 65,000 refugees. </s> President Donald Trump has signed a new executive order blocking the arrival of travelers from six conflict-prone countries for 90 days, and freezing the inflow of refugees from any country for the next 120 days.

The new order shifts the task of stopping the refugees from officers at U.S. airports over to officials at U.S. embassies overseas, who have been told to stop preparing needed travel documents until Trump’s aides complete a national security review, according to documents released today by the White House.

The shift to overseas embassies may prevent judges from trying to block the new order, just as three California judges on Feb. 3 blocked part of Trump’s Jan. 27 executive order on refugees. Under the Constitution, judges have even less authority to block administrative actions in overseas embassies than judges now claim to have over officers working for the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency.

The order blocks document processing for would-be refugees from Sudan, Syria, Iran, Libya, Somalia, and Yemen. A seventh country, Iraq, was dropped from the list when Iraqi officials promised to upgrade their security checks, the White House said.

The order also cuts the annual inflow of refugees from 110,000 to 50,000, and orders federal officials to determine the law allows local communities any say in where refugees are settled in the United States.

The new order cancels the prior refugee order. Officials also say the new order begins March 16, so giving time for people with valid visas to get into the United States.

According to an explanation released by the White House:

Per the Executive Order, foreign nationals from Sudan, Syria, Iran, Libya, Somalia, and Yemen, who are outside the United States and who did not have a valid visa at 5 p.m. Eastern Standard Time on January 27, 2017, and do not have a valid visa on the effective date of this order are not eligible to enter the United States while the temporary suspension remains in effect. Thus any individual who had a valid visa either on January 27, 2017 (prior to 5:00 PM) or holds a valid visa on the effective date of the Executive Order is not barred from entry … Visas will not be revoked solely as a result of the Executive Order. The Department of State has broad authority under Section 221(i) of the Immigration and Nationality Act to revoke visas… Returning refugees and asylees, i.e., individuals who have already been granted asylum or refugee status in the United States, are explicitly excepted from this Executive Order. As such, they may continue to travel consistent with existing requirements…. The Executive Order is effective at 12:01 A.M., Eastern Standard Time, on March 16, 2017.

The new order also shows how the president has the full authority under the Constitution and the laws to curb the inflow of refugees, despite opposition form U.S-based Islamic groups, judges, progressives and Democratic party legislators. The presidential claim of legal authority is needed to push back against judges, such as the three California judges who declared Feb. 3 that U.S. businesses and individuals can get judges to grant visas to foreign individuals.

The Executive Order signed on March 6, 2017, allows for the proper review and establishment of standards to prevent terrorist or criminal infiltration by foreign nationals. The United States has the world’s most generous immigration system, yet it has been repeatedly exploited by terrorists and other malicious actors who seek to do us harm. In order to ensure that the U.S. Government can conduct a thorough and comprehensive analysis of the national security risks posed from our immigration system, the Executive Order imposes a 90-day suspension of entry to the United States of nationals of certain designated countries—countries that were designated by Congress and the Obama Administration as posing national security risks with respect to visa-free travel to the United States under the Visa Waiver Program. The U.S. Government must ensure that those entering this country will not harm the American people after entering, and that they do not bear malicious intent toward the United States and its people. The Executive Order, together with the Presidential Memorandum, protects the United States from countries compromised by terrorism and ensures a more rigorous vetting process. This Executive Order ensures that we have a functional immigration system that safeguards our national security… The Congress provided the President of the United States, in section 212(f) of the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA), with the authority to suspend the entry of any class of aliens the President deems detrimental to the national interest. This authority has been exercised repeatedly for decades, and has been a component of immigration law since the enactment of the original INA in 1952.

Read it all here and here.

Pro-immigration groups complained about the new safety measures. “The only way to actually fix the Muslim ban is not to have a Muslim ban,” said a statement from the ACLU. “Instead, President Trump has recommitted himself to religious discrimination, and he can expect continued disapproval from both the courts and the people.” </s> President Donald Trump signed a new executive order Monday that temporarily blocks citizens from six majority-Muslim countries from traveling to the U.S., revoking and replacing an earlier order which was stalled in federal court after a nationwide stay was issued last month.

While there are marked differences between the two orders, Massachusetts lawyers and advocates say the intent is clearly the same.

Susan Church heads the New England chapter of the American Immigration Lawyers Association (AILA). She says the group is not anticipating the same level of widespread chaos as was the case in late January when Trump's original order went into effect — as hundreds of travelers were detained for hours in U.S. airports or turned away from flights headed here. Still, the group is not taking any chances and has lined up nearly 100 immigration lawyers who are willing to volunteer at Logan Airport if need be.

"We will be available ... to help them, assist their family members who are stuck in processing, and we will be available maybe to go to court again if necessary," Church said.

The new order removes Iraq from the list of countries whose citizens will be temporarily barred entry into the U.S. Iran, Libya, Somalia, Syria, Sudan and Yemen remain on the list. The revised order also explicitly states that visa and green card holders from these countries are exempt from the restrictions, allowing for their entry into the country — a point that was at issue in a Boston federal court case following the first order. The new order also suspends the country's refugee program for 120 days, but it does not single out Syrian refugees for an indefinite ban.

The order will go into effect on March 16 — nearly two weeks after it was signed. This is a stark departure from the previous order which went into effect immediately. Church says this delay contradicts the sense of urgency expressed by the administration.

"They're telling us this is an emergency yet they delayed implementation of this new ban by two weeks almost, they said that they need more time to investigate the security concerns," she said. "So there's no way to say that in the 90 days or the 120 days everything is going to be fixed, because it's not. This is really an effort to grab headlines by this administration more than it's an effort to really address the security concerns of the United States."

But that's not how Jessica Vaughan sees it.

Vaughan is director of policy studies at the Center for Immigration Studies, an organization that supports limiting immigration. She says the revised order is more focused and compelling in explaining the need for a review of security measures. Vaughan also says she wouldn't rule out additional travel restrictions in the future.

"I would not be surprised if the government finds there's no way to improve the vetting from some of these countries," she said. "Perhaps Syria, because there have been so many counter-terrorism and homeland security officials who have been saying for so long that it is impossible because of the lack of a functioning government there ... We may end up having to extend a suspension of travel or a suspension of visa issuances for certain countries depending on what they find."

The initial 120-day closure of the refugee admission program is of special concern to Jeff Thielman, CEO of the International Institute of New England. The resettlement agency has offices in Boston, Lowell and Manchester, New Hampshire. Thielman says this new executive order is no more necessary than the previous order.

"This is pretty significant if you're a refugee family that's been waiting their turn to come to the United States for several years and you've done everything right to go through the U.S. resettlement process," he said. "You're in some place and you've been stranded there for years and we've said, 'If you go through this process, you can come here.' A few more months, four months, for people can be a long time."

Thielman's agency is scheduled to resettle eight refugees through March 16, the day Trump's new order goes into effect. That includes one person who's slated to arrive on the 16th. He says they're trying to determine what sort of ramifications the new executive order will have.

Gov. Charlie Baker said Monday afternoon that he's not yet read the president's executive order in full but maintains that Massachusetts is a welcoming state.

"A huge part of our success as a commonwealth — culturally, economically and just generally — is based on the fact that we got a lot of people in this country who bring points of view and perspectives from around the world to their work and to their communities, and that's a big part of who we are and what we're about," he told WBUR.

Attorney General Maura Healey says her office is considering legal options and "remains opposed to this misguided policy." </s> The Obama Administration plans to increase the number of refugees admitted to the United States by 30 percent in fiscal year 2017, according to the Wall Street Journal, which cited an annual refugee report submitted to Congress.

Secretary of State John Kerry presented the new target of 110,000 in the 2017 fiscal year starting Oct. 1, up from 85,000 in 2016, during a closed session to members of the House and Senate judiciary committees on Tuesday, according to the newspaper.

Kerry has said repeatedly over the past year that the United States would admit at least 100,000 refugees in fiscal 2017 and try to admit more if it were able.
The United States extends the restrictions deadline for refugees.