Washington – US President Donald Trump wasted little time Monday in removing the acting attorney general from office after she said she would not defend his executive order on immigration in court.
Trump fired Sally Yates, a Obama administration holdover, just hours after she issued a statement saying the Justice Department would not defend the controversial executive order “for as long as I am acting director.”
A White House statement said Yates “betrayed” the Department of Justice “by refusing to enforce a legal order designed to protect the citizens of the United States.”
The statement said Trump “relieved” Yates of her duties and named Dana Boente, US attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia, to serve as acting attorney general until Senator Jeff Sessions is confirmed by the Senate.
Yates was appointed by US president Barack Obama who had agreed to serve Trump until Sessions was confirmed.
Yates issued her statement as angry reaction to Trump’s executive order issuing the travel ban, which affects the citizens of seven majority-Muslim countries and refugees from countries in conflict, mounted and protests across the United States raged.
January 29, 2017 – Atlanta, Georgia, U.S – Thousands of people gathered at Atlanta’s Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport to express their opposition to President Donald Trump’s executive order restricting immigration. (Credit Image: © Steve Eberhardt via ZUMA Wire)
The White House was adamant in its defence of the immigration order despite all the controversy it has stirred. Spokesman Sean Spicer held firm to the position that the temporary ban has been good for the security of the country.
“The president’s gonna be very proactive with protecting this country,” Spicer said. “We’re not gonna wait until we get attacked and figure out how we can make sure it doesn’t happen again.”
He repeated the administration’s argument that only 109 people out of approximately 325,000 passengers who arrived in the US on Sunday were detained for questioning.
They were all cleared to enter, he said, adding they had been temporarily detained “to make sure that the safety of the other 324 million Americans was put first.
He said the 109 people were in transit when the executive order was issued as part of Trump’s “extreme vetting” approach to preventing terrorists entering the country.
But controversy and uncertainty spread around the world because an unspecified number of others were stopped before beginning their journeys. Spicer said they would now be put through additional vetting at consulates in their home countries.
Trump’s order banned citizens from Syria, Yemen, Iran, Iraq, Somalia, Libya and Sudan for 90 days, temporarily suspended refugee admissions for 120 days and banned refugee admissions from Syria indefinitely.
Trump also faced pressure from several US companies that voiced concern about the effects the order would have on their workforces.
Washington state Attorney General Bob Ferguson also announced plans to file a lawsuit that would seek to have key provisions of the order declared unconstitutional.
In addition Trump’s order also faced criticism from fellow Republicans in Congress, including Lindsey Graham, a senator from South Carolina, who said the order was too broad and incompetently implemented.
Protests that continued Monday across the country prompted Obama to weigh in on a policy for the first time since leaving office on January 20. Obama said through his spokesman Kevin Lewis that he supported the protests taking place across the country and was “heartened by the level of engagement.”
Lewis said Obama “fundamentally disagrees with the notion of discriminating against individuals because of their faith or religion.”
-dpa
