US judge rules in favour of Yemenis

In yet another challenge to President Donald Trump's travel ban, a California federal judge has issued a court order barring the US government from preventing more than two dozen Yemenis with valid visas from flying to Los Angeles.

US District Judge Andre Birotte handed down his temporary restraining order and preliminary injunction Tuesday following an emergency motion filed by immigration attorney Julie Goldberg and her associate Daniel Covarrubias-Klein on behalf of 28 plaintiffs.

"These are people escaping war, I have people who are injured, people who aren't getting proper medical care, children that have died (while awaiting their visas)," Goldberg, who is currently in Djibouti, where her clients are held up in transit, said by telephone.

"These are the women and children of US citizens and I need to get that message across," she added, clearly frustrated by the plight of her clients, some of whom are living in a house she rents in the tiny African nation.

Birotte's ruling comes on the heels of similar orders issued by judges in several other US states, including New York, Virginia and Washington.

Among those left in limbo in Djibouti because of Trump's temporary travel ban is a Yemeni man whose wife and daughter are US citizens, but whose three-year-old son is an immigrant visa applicant with a passport stuck at the US embassy in Djibouti.

Another is an elderly woman who planned to join her son -- a US citizen -- and his family, and a six-year-old child whose mother is a US citizen.

Goldberg, who has law offices in New York and Los Angeles, said she has some 214 Yemeni clients who have been affected by the travel ban and who are now stranded in Djibouti, unable to return to their war-ravaged country.