Seattle judge temporarily blocks Trump's Muslim ban nationwide

A federal judge in Seattle, Washington on Friday temporarily blocked President Donald Trump's ban on people from seven Muslim-majority countries.

US District Judge James Robart granted a temporary restraining order Friday at the request of Washington state and Minnesota that's effective nationwide.

Trump signed an executive order last week that sparked protests across the country and confusion at airports as some travelers were detained.

Lawyers for the US government argued that the states do not have standing to challenge the order and said Congress gave the president authority to make decisions on national security and admitting immigrants.

Washington Attorney General Bob Ferguson had sued, saying the order is causing significant harm to residents and effectively mandates discrimination. Minnesota joined the suit this week.

Earlier on Friday, a US government lawyer from the Justice Department’s Office of Immigration Litigation told an Alexandria, Virginia court in separate suit that Trump’s executive order resulted in over 100,000 visas being revoked.

The State Department however contradicted the figure, saying fewer than 60,000 foreigners from the countries subject to the ban had their visas canceled.

The State Department said the higher figure includes diplomatic and other visas that were actually exempted by the travel ban, as well as expired visas.

Donald Trump signed an executive order last Friday that temporarily closed US borders to refugees as well as to visa holders from Iran, Iraq, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria and Yemen.