Irish immigration lawyer assists detainees at O’Hare airport in Chicago
‘It was just horrendous, the lack of compassion and communication. It was just inhumane’
US president Donald Trump's executive order closing the nation's borders to visitors and refugees from seven predominantly Muslim countries is met by nationwide protests and a successful lawsuit. Video: Reuters
![Fiona McEntee (right) at O’Hare Airport in Chicago. “We don’t even know what is happening with them [refugees with no family in US]. I am going to head to O’Hare again because I just want to get an idea of what is going on.”](/polopoly_fs/1.2955907.1485716051!/image/image.jpg_gen/derivatives/box_300_160/image.jpg "Fiona McEntee (right) at O’Hare Airport in Chicago. “We don’t even know what is happening with them [refugees with no family in US]. I am going to head to O’Hare again because I just want to get an idea of what is going on.”")
The email went out at lunchtime on Saturday from International Refugee Assistance Project telling lawyers to head to O’Hare Airport in Chicago immediately to help people detained by immigration officials. Fiona McEntee, who is originally from Knocklyon in Dublin, was one of the lawyers who received the email. Car-pooling was arranged to get as many to the airport as quickly as possible.
President Donald Trump’s executive order, signed at 4.42pm (9.42pm Irish time) on Friday, was being implemented. All refugees were being denied entry to the United States for 120 days. Syrian refugees were being barred indefinitely and citizens from seven predominantly Muslim countries – Iran, Iraq, Libya, Somalia, Sudan and Yemen – were being blocked from entering the country for 90 days.