Trump travel ban: Dispute over how many visas revoked as lawyers claim over 100,000

Tens of thousands of visas have been revoked as a result of President Donald Trump's travel ban from seven Muslim-majority countries.

Since its signing on 27 January, Trump's executive order has split families apart and kept them waiting in limbo as State Department and airport officials struggled with the measure affecting thousands of journeys a day.

Now, some indication to the number of people affected has been revealed after a lawsuit was filed by two Yemeni brothers on Friday (3 February) after they were caught up in the travel ban.

During the hearing in Alexandria, Virginia, a lawyer from the Justice Department's Office of Immigration Litigation said over 100,000 visas had been revoked by 27 January, the Washington Post reported.

That figure was immediately disputed by the State Department, which said the number of visas revoked was roughly 60,000.

A spokesman confirmed to the Post the revocations have no impact on the legal status of people already in the United States. However, if those people leave the United States, their visas will no longer be valid.

US District Court Judge Leonie M. Brinkema used the hearing to criticise the Trump administration for its handling of the travel ban.

"This order was issued quite quickly. It's quite clear that not all the thought went into it that should have gone into it," Brinkema said. "It was chaos."

The figure was released as courts across America took action to halt Trump's order.

On Friday, U.S. District Court Senior Judge James L. Robart a judge in Seattle, Washington, declared he was imposing a nationwide restraining order on the executive order.

Washington Attorney General Bob Ferguson said: "We are a nation of laws. Not even the president can violate the constitution.

"No one is above the law, not even the president. This decision shuts down the executive order immediately. That relief is immediate, happens right now. That's the bottom line."