UPDATE: Thousands protest Trump executive order detaining, deporting refugees at Philly airport

Updated: Sun. January 29, 2017, 5:50 p.m.

According to airport officials, Philadelphia Police estimate today’s crowd numbers at the Philadelphia International Airport as between 5,000-6,000.

Demonstrators descended on airports across the nation today, including Philadelphia where thousands shut down major highway and mass transit routes to the airport.

Updated: Sun. January 29, 2017, 5:15 p.m.SEPTA has announced that service to Philadelphia International Airport has been restored.

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ATTN Route 37, 68, 108, and 115 customers: Service has resumed to and from the PHL Airport. Residual delays are expected.

— SEPTA_SOCIAL (@SEPTA_SOCIAL) January 29, 2017

Updated: Sun. January 29, 2017, 4:45 p.m.This evening, Pennsylvania’s attorney general Josh Shapiro joined 17 states attorneys including the District of Columbia in issuing a joint statement condemning as unconstitutional President Donald Trump’s ban on travelers from seven predominantly Muslim nations.

UPDATED: 17 Attorneys General have now signed onto this statement representing over 130 million Americans.

— Josh Shapiro (@JoshShapiroPA) January 29, 2017

Led effort with 15 AG colleagues to condemn President’s Executive Order. We’ll work together to ensure the federal govt obeys Constitution. pic.twitter.com/sO3HslHpWv

— Josh Shapiro (@JoshShapiroPA) January 29, 2017

They say they expect Trump’s executive order to be struck down. The other attorneys general are from Washington, California, New York, Massachusetts, Hawaii, Virginia, Oregon, Connecticut, Vermont, Illinois, New Mexico, Iowa, Maine and Maryland.

Updated: Sun. January 29, 2017, 3:45 p.m.Actions continue Sunday in Philadelphia and across the nation as protesters and politicians work to see President Trump’s order completely defeated.

SEPTA has suspended bus service to the Philadelphia airport until further notice due to the ongoing protests.

Bus: 37, 108, 115 CORRECTION: No service is available to/from the airport until further notice due to a civil demonstration.

— SEPTA (@SEPTA) January 29, 2017

Early unofficial crowd estimates of those who arrived on SEPTA numbered at least 2,000.

Marchers who long ago abandoned their cars are hitching rides with other protesters pic.twitter.com/DV3Rg1bFu8

— Bobby Allyn (@BobbyAllyn) January 29, 2017

Updated: Sun. January 29, 2017, 2:30 p.m.Pennsylvania Governor Tom Wolf plans to meet with the Allentown family of six Syrians denied entry to the country early Saturday.

In a statement yesterday, Wolf said, “on a human level, it is unconscionable to do this to these legal immigrants and their families. William Penn founded Pennsylvania as a safe place for vulnerable people fleeing oppression. This does not represent who we are.”

Updated: Sun. January 29, 2017, 2:00 p.m.U.S. Senators John McCain and Lindsay Graham have come out against President Trump’s executive order, releasing a critical statement Sunday.

“Our government has a responsibility to defend our borders, but we must do so in a way that makes us safer and upholds all that is decent and exceptional about our nation.

“It is clear from the confusion at our airports across the nation that President Trump’s executive order was not properly vetted. We are particularly concerned by reports that this order went into effect with little to no consultation with the Departments of State, Defense, Justice, and Homeland Security.”

Full statement w/ @LindseyGrahamSC on @POTUS‘s executive order on immigration: https://t.co/Fh9ylhWZyc

— John McCain (@SenJohnMcCain) January 29, 2017

In an interview with CNN, Senator Chuck Schumer called the order “mean spirited and un-American.”

President Donald Trump’s chief of staff says the temporary ban on refugees is aimed at blocking “people who want to do bad things to America.”

Reince Priebus says there’s nothing to apologize for and tells NBC’s “Meet the Press” that the action “doesn’t affect green card holders moving forward” — the subject of legal challenges.

Scores were detained Saturday upon arrival at U.S. airports, spurring the judge’s order. Priebus says officials were using “discretionary authority” to ask “a few more questions” at U.S. airports.

Trump adviser Kellyanne Conway told “Fox News Sunday” that a federal judge’s emergency order last night temporarily barring the U.S. from deporting people from nations subject to Trump’s travel ban “really doesn’t affect the executive order at all.” Conway says Trump’s order is about “preventing, not detaining” and says that only a very small percentage of travelers have been impacted.

Earlier todayAn American Civil Liberties Union official says three people detained overnight after being stopped upon arrival at Philadelphia International Airport have been allowed to continue to other U.S. destinations following a judge’s order on President Donald Trump’s travel ban.

Deputy legal director Mary Catherine Roper of Pennsylvania ACLU said another person was allowed to leave with relatives late Saturday.

Roper said all had initially been told that they would have to return to what she called “terribly dangerous places.”

She said her organization has no idea how many people who were denied entry simply went back out of fear of the consequences of not doing so.

Mayor Jim Kenney said all arriving passengers Sunday “will be treated the same as they would have been prior to the executive order.”

Kenney went on to thank the ACLU, the International Refugee Assistance Project, volunteer lawyers, the peaceful Philadelphia demonstrators, Senator Casey, Governor Wolf, Congressman Brady, Congressman Evans, State Rep. Brian Sims, State Rep. Jordan Harris and Councilwoman Helen Gym, and Rep. Brendan Boyle, Rep. Charlie Dent and Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick “for their vocal opposition to this unconstitutional order.”

Cheers broke out in a crowd of demonstrators outside a Brooklyn courthouse as the decision, effective nationwide, was announced late Saturday. The order barred U.S. border agents from removing anyone who arrived in the U.S. with a valid visa from Iraq, Syria, Iran, Sudan, Libya, Somalia and Yemen. It also covered anyone with an approved refugee application.

According to a statement from the civil rights attorneys representing those detained in Philadelphia, the decision did not address what would happen to others who had been refused entry and detained throughout the day in different locations.

Detainees were not allowed to contact family or speak with attorneys. But local civil rights attorneys mobilized to bring legal action to free those detained.

Actions continue Sunday in Philadelphia and across the nation as protesters and politicians continue to work to see President Trump’s order completely defeated.

Follow along with our reporters and readers as the day’s events unfold.

[View the story “Refugees detained, denied entry to US; protests erupt ” on Storify]

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