Several congressional Republicans have spoken out against President Donald Trump's immigration and refugee restrictions, reflecting unease within the president's party about the direction he is taking in his first weeks in office. But it was not immediately clear if such internal opposition to Trump policy signals a crack in broader Republican support for the new president as he takes several controversial turns in steering his administration in the post-Barack Obama era.
By Monday at least 30 Republicans in the Senate and House of Representatives had publicly opposed or criticized the executive order signed last Friday which led to the detention of more than 100 people at US airports and mass protests in many cities, and prompted a near unanimous castigation by Democrats.
Trump's executive order at the conclusion of his first week in office bars US entry for travelers from seven mainly Muslim countries -- Iran, Iraq, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria and Yemen -- for 90 days. It also suspends the arrival of all refugees for at least 120 days, and Syrian refugees indefinitely.
In an extraordinary public showdown, President Donald Trump fired the acting attorney general of the United States after she publicly questioned the constitutionality of his refugee and immigration ban and refused to defend it in court. The clash Monday night between Trump and Sally Yates, a career prosecutor and Democratic appointee, laid bare the growing discord and dissent surrounding an executive order. Yates' refusal to defend the executive order was largely symbolic given that Sen. Jeff Sessions, Trump's pick for attorney general, will almost certainly defend the policy once he's sworn in.
Yet the firing reflected the mounting conflict over the executive order, as administration officials have moved to distance themselves from the policy and even some of Trump's top advisers have made clear that they were not consulted on its implementation.
As protests erupted at airports across the globe, and as legal challenges piled up in courthouses, Yates directed agency attorneys not to defend the executive order. She said in a memo Monday she was not convinced it was lawful or consistent with the agency's obligation "to stand for what is right."
Trump's press secretary, Sean Spicer, soon followed with a statement accusing Yates of having "betrayed the Department of Justice by refusing to enforce a legal order designed to protect the citizens of the United States." Trump named longtime federal prosecutor Dana Boente, the U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia, as Yates' replacement. Boente was sworn in privately late Monday, the White House said, and rescinded Yates's directive.
