The New York Times :
A month after President Trump’s executive order barring people from seven majority-Muslim nations from entering the United States caused tumult around the country, the government’s accounting of how many travelers the ban affected remains unclear.
A total of 746 people were detained and processed in a 26-hour period immediately after a federal judge in Brooklyn blocked part of Mr. Trump’s Jan. 27 order, according to a list released by the government on Thursday. The figure was nearly seven times greater than the 109 people that Mr. Trump said in a Jan. 30 message on Twitter had been “held for questioning” and Sean M. Spicer, the White House press secretary, said had been “inconvenienced.” But, according to lawyers for some of those who were detained, 746 may be an incomplete figure. At a hearing before Judge Carol B. Amon of Federal District Court in Brooklyn on Friday, those lawyers challenged the veracity of the government’s list, saying they knew of at least 10 people who had been detained who were not included in the tally. Some detainees were forced to return to the countries from which they had come, despite having valid visas. The lawyers initially asked that the government provide them with a list of names so they could help people return to the United States. Joshua Press, a Justice Department trial lawyer,
said at the hearing that a vast majority of those who were held were eventually allowed to enter the country and were legal permanent residents. He said he could not provide a specific number.
The Justice Department referred a request for that figure to the Customs and Border Protection agency, which declined to comment because of the continuing litigation. At the hearing, Judge Amon ordered the government to inform the plaintiffs how many of the 746 people on the government’s list had been allowed to enter the country, and to investigate the cases the plaintiffs’ lawyers said had been omitted. The list included only the given name and surname of those who were detained and did not mention nationalities. Judge Amon had not ordered that contact information be included.
