Trump's executive visa order sees travellers 'turned away' from US
Passengers have been barred from flights into the US and visa holders refused entry after Donald Trump imposed strict new controls on travellers from seven Muslim-majority nations.
The US President who had promised the measures - called "extreme vetting" - during last year's election campaign, said he was making America safe from "radical Islamic terrorists" as he signed the executive order on Friday.
The decree means no visas will be issued for 90 days to migrants or visitors from Iran, Iraq, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria and Yemen.
A Homeland Security spokeswoman confirmed on Saturday that the order would also bar green card holders - those allowed given permanent residency - from those countries.
Within hours, campaigners said there were reports of many visa holders being denied permission to enter the country.
"We are inundated with calls and questions of how this is going to affect people," Jamal Abdi from the National Iranian American Council said.
Google urged about 100 employees to return as soon as possible from abroad as they could be affected.
Cairo airport officials said six Iraqis and a Yemeni had been barred from an EgyptAir flight to New York following the order.
An Iraqi journalist living in the US, Mohammed al-Rawi, posted on Facebook that his father had been turned away from a Los Angeles-bound flight in Qatar.
Anthony Romero, executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union, said: "'Extreme vetting' is just a euphemism for discriminating against Muslims."
The Council on American-Islamic Relations said it would challenge the constitutionality of the executive order.
"There is no evidence that refugees - the most thoroughly vetted of all people entering our nation - are a threat to national security," Lena F. Masri, the group's national litigation director, said.
"This is an order that is based on bigotry, not reality."
"It is targeting people based on their faith and national origin, and not on their character or their criminality," he said.
Iran said it would ban Americans from entering the country in response to the "insulting" order.
The new measures also suspended the entire US refugee resettlement programme for at least 120 days while tough new vetting rules of applicants' backgrounds are established.
The new protocols will "ensure that those approved for refugee admission do not pose a threat to the security and welfare of the United States".
In addition, it specifically bars Syrian refugees from the US indefinitely, or until the President himself decides that they no longer pose a threat.
"This is big stuff," Mr Trump declared at the Pentagon, after signing an order entitled "Protection of the nation from foreign terrorist entry into the United States".
"I'm establishing new vetting measures to keep radical Islamic terrorists out of the United States of America," he said.
Jan Egeland of the Norwegian Refugee Council said the decision "will not make America safer, it will make America smaller and meaner".
The UN refugee agency and the International Organization for Migration called on Mr Trump to let in those fleeing war and persecution.
"The needs of refugees and migrants worldwide have never been greater and the US resettlement programme is one of the most important in the world," the agencies said in a joint statement.
French Foreign Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault said: "This can only worry us, but there are many subjects that worry us."
He added that he would soon invite his future American counterpart Rex Tillerson to Paris to explain Europe's interests, values and vision of the world.
Germany's Foreign Affairs Minister Sigmar Gabriel said: "The United States is a country where Christian traditions have an important meaning. Loving your neighbour is a major Christian value, and that includes helping people."
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