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Cuomo, Schneiderman Offer Legal Assistance To Detainees Affected By Trump's Order

Seth Wenig
/
AP
Protesters rally at John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York on Sunday. President Trump's immigration order sowed more chaos and outrage across the country, with travelers detained at airports and panicked families searching for relatives.

New York Governor Cuomo is offering his top attorneys to help defend detainees and their families affected by President Trump’s executive order banning immigrants, in the midst of second day of protests across the nation, including at New York’s John F. Kennedy Airport.

Governor Cuomo offered the aid of the lawyers in his office to provide any assistance needed to detainees and their families caught up in President Trump’s order that has left many immigrants and refugees stranded. In response to confusion over how the order is carried out, or prevented by federal judicial orders, the governor has set up a hotline for families who are trying to locate a relative who might be stranded.

“They have rights to due process, they have equal protection rights,” said Cuomo. “And those rights have to be protected.”

Cuomo did not mention President Trump by name.

New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman is also offering assistance to detainees’ attorneys, and, along with attorneys general from 14 other states, condemns the executive order as “unconstitutional, un-American and unlawful.”

Karen has covered state government and politics for New York State Public Radio, a network of 10 New York and Connecticut stations, since 1990. She is also a regular contributor to the statewide public television program about New York State government, New York Now. She appears on the reporter’s roundtable segment, and interviews newsmakers.