A US federal judge has temporarily blocked US President Donald Trump's order banning refugees and people from seven countries from entering the country. 
US District Judge James Robart in Seattle granted Washington state Attorney General Bob Ferguson's request to immediately halt Trump's order on a nationwide basis, ruling that it could otherwise cause "irreparable harm". 
Robart, who was nominated to the court by Republican president George W Bush also said the state was likely to prove its underlying lawsuit that the order was unconstitutional. 
"The constitution prevailed today," said Ferguson, a Democrat who was the first state attorney general to challenge the ban. "No one is above the law - not even the president". 
The White House said it would fight the ruling, describing the order as "lawful and appropriate" and "intended to protect the homeland". 
Ferguson filed his challenge on Monday, three days after Trump signed his order, which suspended the US refugee program and travel from Iraq, Syria, Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, and Yemen, as well as indefinitely banning Syrian refugees from the country. 
The state of Minnesota - like Washington, a Democrat-run state - later joined the suit. Other challenges to Trump's order have been filed all around the country including by the states of New York, Massachusetts and Virginia. 
The State Department on Friday said that 60,000 visas had been revoked following Trump's order, after media reports quoted government lawyers as saying that more than 100,000 people had been affected.

Source: QNA