Visa holders hurry to board flights to US amid reprieve

Ammar Alnajjar, left, shakes hands with his cousin, Fahd Alfakih, after coming into New York's JFK International Airport on a flight from Istanbul, Turkey, Saturday, Feb. 4, 2017. The government on Saturday suspended enforcement of President Donald Trump's refugee and immigration ban, enabling Alnajjar to return from Turkey where he was visiting his wife. (AP Photo/William Mathis) (The Associated Press)

Protesters against President Trump's temporary travel ban on citizens from seven Muslim-majority nations stand in front of the Bradley Terminal at Los Angeles International Airport, Saturday, Feb. 4, 2017, in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Reed Saxon) (The Associated Press)

Visa holders from seven majority-Muslim countries affected by President Donald Trump's travel ban are hurrying to board U.S.-bound flights, fearing they might have only a slim window through which to enter the country after a federal judge temporarily blocked the ban.

Those who could travel immediately were being urged to do so because of uncertainty over whether the Justice Department would be granted an emergency freeze of the order issued Friday by U.S. District Judge James Robart in Seattle.

The government on Saturday suspended enforcement of the week-old ban as it scurried to appeal Robart's order.

Rula Aoun, director of the Arab American Civil Rights League in Dearborn, Michigan, told The Detroit News that she knows of one family who intends to fly back from Egypt on Sunday and another woman there who is booking her flight back as soon as possible.