Donald Trump has fired the acting US attorney general, after she questioned the legality of his immigration ban.
Sally Yates, who had been appointed under Barack Obama, earlier ordered justice department lawyers not to enforce the president’s executive order.
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In a statement, the White House said Ms Yates had “betrayed” the department.
Dana Boente, US attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia, replaces her as acting attorney general.
In a letter, Ms Yates had said she was “not convinced” that the president’s order was lawful.
“As long as I am the acting attorney general, the department of justice will not present arguments in defence of the Executive Order,” she said.
But the White House said she had “betrayed the department of justice by refusing to enforce a legal order designed to protect the citizens of the United States”.
“President Trump relieved Ms Yates of her duties,” a statement from the press secretary said.
Meanwhile, hundreds of US diplomats around the world are set to formally criticise President Donald Trump’s immigration restrictions, officials tell the BBC.
A “dissent cable” has been drafted for senior state department officials.
The White House said those complaining should “get with the programme”.
In the wake of Trump’s ban on nationals from seven Muslim-majority countries, ex-President Barack Obama has spoken out against discrimination “based on faith or religion”.
In a statement his spokesman, Kevin Lewis, said Obama was also “heartened” by the level of engagement taking place across the country.
The draft text of the dissent cable seen by the BBC says that the immigration restrictions will not make the US safer, are un-American and will send the wrong message to the Muslim world.
Such cables are not that unusual but a State Department official said that the document had been signed by “hundreds” of people, which was described as “unprecedented”.
President Trump issued the restrictions on Friday.
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His executive order halted the entire US refugee programme for 120 days, indefinitely banned Syrian refugees and suspended all nationals from Iran, Iraq, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria and Yemen for 90 days.
In other developments:
*The Council on American-Islamic Relations, a major advocacy group, says it has filed a lawsuit challenging the executive order
*Washington state’s attorney general is also suing. Bob Ferguson was one of 16 state attorneys general who have said the order is unconstitutional. Tech firms Amazon, Expedia and Microsoft, based in the state, will reportedly explain how the order is impacting them
*Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will visit the US on 15 February
*President Trump’s Supreme Court nominee will be announced on Tuesday
White House press secretary Sean Spicer has again defended the policy changes. At a press conference he hit out at the diplomats and foreign service officers drafting the dissent cable.
“Again, you talk about, in a 24-hour period, 325,000 people from other countries flew in through our airports and we’re talking about 109 people from seven countries that the Obama administration identified,” he told reporters.
“And these career bureaucrats have a problem with it? I think they should either get with the programme or they can go.”
News of the complaint from US diplomats comes amid international condemnation of the new policies. The White House has defended the restrictions as necessary safety measures.
The cable seen by the BBC says the “knee-jerk” restrictions will “sour relations” with the Muslim world and alienate countries that help in the fight against terrorism.
It notes that most terror attacks in the US have been committed by US-born or naturalised citizens and compares the new measures to restrictions on Japanese-Americans during World War Two.
“The end result of this ban will not be a drop in terror attacks in the United States; rather, it will be a drop in international goodwill towards Americans and a threat towards our economy,” the cable, which may be an earlier draft, says.
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