WASHINGTON: The U.S. State Department will allow people with valid visas into the United States, a department official said on Saturday, in order to comply with an opinion from a federal judge in Seattle barring President Donald Trump's executive action.
"We have reversed the provisional revocation of visas," the State Department official said in a statement.
"Those individuals with visas that were not physically canceled may now travel if the visa is otherwise valid."
Citizens of seven Muslim countries who were banned from the United States by President Donald Trump can resume boarding U.S.-bound flights, the U.S. government said on Saturday, after a Seattle judge blocked his executive order.
The ruling gave hope to many travellers and sent some scrambling for tickets, worried that the newly opened window might not last long. Trump denounced the judge on Twitter and said the decision would be quashed.
"The opinion of this so-called judge, which essentially takes law-enforcement away from our country, is ridiculous and will be overturned!" the president said.
The travel ban, which Trump says is needed to protect the United States against militants, has sparked travel chaos around the world and condemnation by rights groups who have called it racist and discriminatory.
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