Fallout from Trump immigration order roils on

They sat in the mosque at the Islamic Center of Delaware on Monday night, shoulder to shoulder, too many for the room to hold, Christians, Jews, Muslims and Hindus.

"This is what real America looks like," thundered Imam Hadi Shehata.

Delaware Pastors, rabbis and imams spoke alongside Gov. John Carney and Sen. Chris Coons, decrying President Donald Trump's ban on travel from seven majority-Muslim countries. The move sparked furious nationwide protests in airports throughout the weekend, and it remained clear as the work week started that America remained sharply divided.

STORY: Thousands at Philly airport call Trump's order 'un-American'

STORY: Trump edict to block Syrian refugee entry to Delaware

Some, like those at Monday night's event, feared Trump was taking America down the path of intolerance and exclusivity. The rabbis who spoke invoked the Holocaust.

"First they came for the Muslims, and I said: 'Not this time," intoned Rabbi Micah Becker-Klein, of Temple Beth El in Newark.

But even as U.S. senators and faith leaders thundered against Trump, the president's supporters argued he was moving fast to keep the country safe — just like he had promised.

"I think what President Trump has done for this country with the executive order is make it safer,” said Terry Kues, of Ocean View. "We’re a country of immigrants, so I do believe this should be a temporary ban. I don’t think the government should ban immigrants permanently, but vetting them before letting them enter the country is wise on the president’s part."

Trump's order bars entry to citizens of Syria, Iraq, Iran, Sudan, Libya, Somalia or Yemen, and it suspends the U.S. refugee program for 120 days.

The announcement of the order on Friday caused some immigrants to be detained for hours, while others were sent back to their home countries immediately upon arriving in the U.S.

Almost instantly, the order was under legal attack. A judge blocked part of the order, barring the government from deporting some of the people who had already arrived in the U.S.

On Tuesday, the ACLU of Pennsylvania, joined by other immigrant rights advocates, plans to sue the Trump administration on behalf of an Iranian mother of a University of Delaware student and Syrian relatives of an Allentown, Pennsylvania, dentist who were detained at Philadelphia International Airport Saturday before being forced to board planes back home. The lawsuit is scheduled to be announced at a press conference at Philadelphia City Hall, attended by the affected families and Philadelphia Mayor Jim Kenney.

Among the affected families are Farzaneh Ahmadi Darani, a UD doctoral student in chemistry, and Shadi Ahmadi Darani, a doctoral candidate in mechanical engineering at Michigan Technological University. The Daranis’ mother, Fatemeh Sheikhi, was supposed to arrive at the Philadelphia airport on Saturday morning but was not there.

The sisters later learned that she had been detained in Philadelphia and sent back to Iran, according to a report in The New York Times. The Daranis could not be reached for comment Monday.

Also on Saturday, six Syrian relatives of Allentown dentist Ghassan Assali and his wife, Sarmad Assali, were returned to Doha, Qatar, where they initially boarded their flight to the Philadelphia with visas in hand. The Assalis told Philly.com that all the relatives are Christians living in Damascus.

Later Saturday, a federal judge granted the ACLU’s request for a nationwide temporary injunction that blocks the deportation of all people stranded in U.S. airports under Trump’s executive order.

Attorney General Matt Denn said his office was considering legal action to fight the order, either independently or with some of the other state AGs who had already begun legal action. He called the order "A betrayal of basic American values."

The protests and legal challenges didn't sway a crew of "ballroom dancers and Trump supporters," including Kues. They were happy to talk about the president's actions during a lunch stop at the Stargate Diner and Restaurant in Harrington.

Whit Warmoth, of Milford, said he heard many people at airport protests across the country say that the executive order was unconstitutional. He disagrees, saying it is the right of every president to use the power of the pen to sign such orders.

“He feels it necessary to move the country forward,” Warmoth said. “He’s keeping his campaign promises and moving the country in a different direction.

Kues said she and her friends are concerned for their grandchildren, which leads them to believe the executive orders are necessary.

"We started talking about this six years ago, because we saw the direction the country was going in," she said. "It wasn’t good for the country and seniors."

Bob Kues, agrees with his wife that the president has the right to use executive orders to change the direction of the country from the former administration, he also thinks it shouldn’t be overdone.

“I think a lot of executive orders are overturning the previous executive orders, and in the case of restricting immigration, it is needed,” he said. “I wouldn’t want to see the country ruled by executive orders, however. Some are necessary, but the more common it becomes, the worst is for the country. The president shouldn’t rule by executive order alone.”

Delaware's highest ranking state officials, all Democrats, excoriated Trump's proposal. Sen. Tom Carper joined other senators on the steps of the Supreme Court in Washington to protest the ban; at the interfaith event back home, Sen. Chris Coons gave a fire-breathing speech accusing Trump of "jerking the wheel of history."

"History asks, where do you stand?" Coons said.

As Delawareans began to form their opinions about the move, universities and major employers were still coming to grips with the impact Trump's orders would have on their workers.

The University of Delaware "strongly advised" its students, faculty and staff who hail from those countries not to leave the country.

"We appreciate the uncertainty and concern these changes in immigration policy can create for our international students and scholars and the entire Delaware community," UD President Dennis Assanis and other leaders wrote in a letter to the university community Sunday. "The talent, insight, and perspectives of our international students, faculty, researchers, and staff remain essential ingredients of our community to which we are wholly committed."

The UD letter points to a statement from the Association of Public & Land-grant Universities, of which UD is a member, voicing "deep concern" about the order.

The statement says there are 17,000 students at U.S. universities from the chosen countries and says faculty from those countries are vital to the education and research they perform.

“The new order is causing significant disruption and hardship to some university students, researchers, faculty, and staff who are citizens of the seven countries targeted and happened to be abroad at the time it was issued," the APLU statement says. "This means that students’ work toward degrees are in question and the ability of faculty to continue teaching or conducting research is uncertain.  On a personal level, some of these people are now separated from family members and torn away from the lives they had already legally established in the U.S."

Several major Delaware employers, like J.P. Morgan Chase, issued letters to staff saying some of their employees has been affected.

"With more than 140,000 employees in the United States alone, we are grateful for the hard work and sacrifices made to keep our country safe," said the letter, published on Business Insider. "At the same time, we understand that our country, economy and well-being are strengthened by the rich diversity of the world around us."

Reporter Esteban Parra contributed to this story.

Contact Matthew Albright at malbright@delawareonline.com, (302) 324-2428 or on Twitter @TNJ_malbright.