Donald Trump, U.S. President

Agree with his policies or not, one can't deny the global travel disruption U.S. President Donald Trump's executive orders regarding travel to the U.S. have caused. His first so-called travel ban, issued Jan. 27, restricted citizens of Iraq, Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria and Yemen from entering the country for the following 90 days, including people with documented legal U.S. status. The order also suspended the U.S. Refugee Admissions Program for 120 days, lowered the number of refugees the U.S. would admit in 2017 to 50,000 and indefinitely suspended the entry of Syrian refugees into the country. Trump argued the time periods were necessary for the Department of Homeland Security to review the effectiveness of visa requirements for each country.

Confusion, uproar, protests at major airports, legal challenges and condemnation by major corporations ensued. Judges in New York, Massachusetts and Virginia blocked certain aspects of the order and temporarily halted deportation for individuals with permanent U.S. resident status or valid visas but not before the federal government detained 746 people over 26.5 hours on Jan. 28 and 29 and provisionally revoked about 60,000 visas, spinning lives into limbo. Nearly 50 cases challenging the order were filed in federal courts within four days of the order.

In March, Trump replaced that order with a narrower one that dropped Iraq from the list of banned countries; confirmed that green card holders, those with temporary student and work visas and visitors with a "bona fide relationship" with someone in the U.S. would not be affected; and suspended Syrian refugee applications for 120 days rather than indefinitely. This second order also faced legal challenges immediately; more states, businesses and universities joined the fight and filed injunctions that claimed the ban remained unconstitutional and harmed states' business communities and economies. Federal judges in Maryland and Hawaii blocked the order in March, and in May, after the 4th Circuit Court of Appeals upheld a nationwide injunction, Trump vowed to take the case to the Supreme Court. In July, the courts forced the State Department and Homeland Security to revise its definition of a "bona fide relationship" to encompass more family members and entities like employers and universities.

Again preempting higher court action, Trump in September issued a third version of his so-called travel ban. This one indefinitely restricted travel from five of the seven countries in the first order, excluding Iraq and Sudan, and adding Chad, North Korea and Venezuela to the list. Federal courts in Maryland and Hawaii blocked the order before it was scheduled to take effect in October. However, on Dec. 4, the Supreme Court reinstated the third ban, and so it will be in effect through appeals, which could be destined for the Supreme Court. Oral arguments on the Hawaii case began on Dec. 6.