executive director, have yyou hd a very busy probably 48 hours. i know you will get a good night's sleep. >> let's see. let's see. thank you very much. >> thank you so much. >> of course. my pleasure. thank you. >> now joining us on the phone is the u.s. senator of illinois, tammy duckworth. senator, you come from a state also with a large immigrant population. we were following some of the pictures coming out of chicago o'hare airport, the nation's busiest airport, where there were lawyers stationed at desks to assist what we estimate to be about 10 or 12 detainees or i should say, those that were detained at the airport. we have live pictures right now. people are still gathering. as you have been following what's happening in your state, what can you tell us? >> well, there were 18 folks who

were being detained and two were babies. this includes a green card holders, permanent legal residents and we are trying very hard to get as much information as we can. i think we are down to 12 now. some have been released. thank goodness for the attorneys who just got on the el and headed out there, drove their cars and headed out there on their own. all the protesters who have come out. we are working very hard to try to take care of the folks who are still in detention right now. >> what do you think's next? you may have heard a portion of my interview with anthony romero, who is the head of the aclu. he was the one that was inside of that courtroom in brooklyn, new york, then the stay came down. what's your assessment of how far they may have gotten? >> well, thank goodness they filed the appeal or whatever they did to get, i'm not an attorney, just a broken down old soldier who is trying to deal with this. thank goodness they did that because we have a little bit of

relief. we know at least these folks are not going to be sent back to whatever country they came here from. let me stress that some of the folks who have been detained are american citizens. some of them, a lot of them are green card holders, legal permanent residents. so this is not all refugees. we have seriously infringed on especially in their case their constitutional rights with what's happening right now. >> what do you want to be the next step? >> i want these folks to be released out of the airports. i want them to go home. i want them to take their babies home and put them to bed just like i put my daughter to bed tonight. then i need to get to work on monday and we need to figure out what we can do here. because one of the things people have not talked about is that this endangers americans who are traveling overseas right now. i worry about our troops who are in harm's way who just became more of a target. they are deployed all over the world. americans who are traveling on

vacation who are living in foreign countries just became more of a target. this is a dangerous thing that has happened. >> senator, you know this well because you are a veteran, not a broken down old soldier, certainly, if not one of the leaders. what does this mean for those who are permanent residents, who do serve in the u.s. military? what does it mean for individuals as we were talking about earlier today, hamid darwesh who served for ten years in iraq helping folks like you as an interpreter and then wanting to come to the united states? >> i am so grateful for the work that he did. he actually did that work at the same time that i was in iraq and these interpreters saved our lives. saved so many of our service men and women's lives. this is how we repay them. when he finally got here we repaid him by putting him into handcuffs. that is not acceptable. that is not the american way.

again, i want to reemphasize we have just endangered more americans overseas with this order and i worry about what american businesses will do overseas with their employees who are living overseas and conducting business. lots of companies have u.s. citizens living overseas. how are we going to protect them? >> a part of that is when we look at google, had when we loo facebook, they have come out and said to their employees in the last 24 hours, those who have -- that may go abroad or that are abroad to return quickly, is don't go there. in fact, mark zuckerberg went so far posting on facebook to say he has looked at the history of refugees in this country and if it weren't for that history, he wouldn't have a wife and he was alluding to his wife's refugee past, her parents basically,

from asia. so there is a clear thematic that runs not only through silicon valley but through business as we look at how they are dealing with developing talent and what their messaging internally about what they stand for. >> this is a betrayal of who we are as americans, as a nation, what this executive order does. i grew up post-the vietnam war. my dad was a vet and you know, i remember america's shining hour when we took in the refugees from vietnam and cambodia and laos. we took in the boat people who put their babies into boats and fled on the south china sea, and now we are turning away people, who are putting their babies into boats to flee isis and butchers and we are even turning away american citizens. this is not what america stands for. it's certainly not the values

that i fought to defend during my service. >> we cannot thank you enough, u.s. senator tammy duckworth. well decorated veteran. thank you so much for stopping by tonight. i know it's late. >> thank you. >> we'll be right back. ere's on that just tastes better. so fresh from the farm. delicious. perfect. only one egg with more great nutrition- now with 5 times more vitamin d, 10 times more vitamin e, and 25% less saturated fat. only one egg good enough for my family. because why have ordinary when you can have the best. eggland's best. the only egg that gives you so much more: better taste. better nutrition. better eggs.

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yada yada yada. stream some stuff! somewhere! sometimes! you totally nailed that buddy. simple. don't let directv now limit your entertainment. only xfinity gives you more to stream to any screen. [ chanting ] let them out today. that is the chant live coming out of chicago o'hare at 9:10 local time. perhaps the news has reached the ground there. a national stay has been issued by a federal judge in brooklyn, new york about an hour ago. that national stay says that those who are currently detained cannot be sent back to their

country of origin and according to anthony romero, the head of the aclu, those who have legal documentation at this moment, legal approval to enter the united states, they can still come to the united states despite their country of origin, despite the executive order that was signed by president trump on friday. that's the big news this hour. our chief legal correspondent, ari melber, joins us right now. you can hear the chant right now. the question is let them out, release those who are detained, that's the chant coming out of chicago because that's what the national stay is saying. they can stay but who knows what the process is to release them from detention. >> well, striking to hear you relay what they are chanting in chicago. i can tell you outside the courthouse there are still well

over 150 people, conservative estimate, currently chanting "no hate, no fear" and saying refugees basically are welcome here. no hate, no fear, refugees are welcome here. that's the chant. the detention process will now legally unfold because what the judge has done outside this court where everybody is gathering and celebrating, what the judge has said is that the trump order cannot be used to deport or move people who are already here and are going to be lawfully here under their understanding because they had a green card or refugee status or some other authorization. that's an open question because there will be that process. i can tell you in a little scene, this is obviously by definition a spontaneous gathering out here at the courthouse because this is what's called an emergency proceeding. courts are not open on saturdays but the aclu did convince the judge to hear an emergency

basis, the justice department's new york based lawyers arguing on behalf of president trump and people gathered before they even knew the news, gathered in these large crowd and then when they got the news, the aclu came out triumphantly, it was quite a scene here. i'm not sure what people were expecting but they sure seemed excited to get the news the partial stay was granted. you broke it down so well an hour ago when this news was breaking. anthony romero putting an estimation out here of about 200 who are currently in detention or being detained because of this gray area that's been out here for the last 24 hours. he also estimated in the small thousands that those who have the legal papers to enter the united states that still may be coming to the u.s. or can come here legally, that would also be affected by this national stay but what you so clearly stated is those starting with zero in terms of the process of getting legal papers to enter, they are

still affected by this executive order. >> that's right. the big breaking, i would say legally unexpected news, was that a court even agreed to hear this on a saturday night and then strike part of it into a pause. that's the non-legal term. put the pause button on and say hey, with regard to people who are already here, you can't just deport them even if the president in his rightful lawful authority is going to start blocking the same category of class. that by the way underscores a larger controversy. president trump clearly was productive in his first week. he did a lot of things. but there were many kcritiques immediately including from republican officials and those with a lot of experience who said he was doing them so fast, that might be worse even if you did agree with some of the goals. i think history will look back at this as one of those examples because all of these people who are in this lurch, all the reporting we have seen today of folks in airports and in visa

centers, these are people who had this been done with any reasonable notice wouldn't have been caught in a gray zone. >> stand by, because i have another question. if the aclu goes back and they are saying they will do this, they can get the entire order here on a national stay. stick with us. we'll be right back.

. anthony romero, executive director of the aclu. [ inaudible question ] >> we asked the judge to hold everything in place, we believe this executive order is clearly unlawful. what we said to the judge is we understand she may need time to figure that out, to block the removal of everyone nationwide who has been caught up in this unlawful executive order. she agreed. the government may not send anybody back until she finally rules. everyone now who came is safe and that is absolutely critical.

as anthony said, the courts worked the way they were supposed to work in our country. the president could not override the courts. >> there they are, the aclu. that began the celebrations outside of what you see here live in brooklyn, new york, federal court. federal judge issuing that national stay and there watching all this happen was our chief legal correspondent ari melber. before we went to break, i was asking you what might the aclu do next, because those who don't have the legal papers all sealed and delivered, signed, sealed and delivered, they are still affected by this. so those who benefit by this national stay so far number in the about 200 to maybe 3,000, if you will, according to the aclu, according to anthony romero. is it a slippery slope because i got this if you will bit of success that they can actually

get the entire order on a stay? >> well, that will be a much longer road based on what we know, but the premise of your question is important and is correct, which is in a sense if the trump administration was going to do this anyway, they inadvertently may have done challengers a favor by rushing it and leaving so many people in the lurch who have standing as we have just shown a judge, federal judge finding they have standing and rights to be protected regardless of who is president. so those people now are the first. they may not be the last, but they are the first people on the bus to challenge this order and i can tell you from reviewing it, the aclu's arguments included a broader challenge on fifth amendment grounds, on due process, on equal protection, on religious discrimination. the list goes on. none of that again, to be clear, addressed tonight. but they have ensured the trump

administration has ensured now by doing this this way that there is an active challenge, that it's in federal court, that it's already lost a small part of the implication of the order and now it will continue. i can tell you for those looking ahead that the aclu told me tonight that they were scheduled for february hearings so that is relatively soon, and that process goes ahead. >> so what might the trump administration lawyers do now? how do they respond to this? >> the trump administration we would expect with the justice department which almost always routinely defends all laws on the books and all executive action with very rare exceptions, will continue to make their argument. i would expect that if they are going to look at this ruling tonight, they are going to go back quietly probably to main justice in washington or the white house and say you want to know the risk of going too fast, you want to know the risk of not

doing the interagency process, you want to know the risk of not listening to anyone who's ever done this before even when they're on your side, this is the risk. because again as i mentioned earlier in your live reporting tonight, if this order had been done with ten days' notice instead of no days' notice, a judge might have come to a very different conclusion about someone who with notice ten days later was still trying to barge into the country, possibly. i don't know for sure. but this has certainly strengthened challengers because they now have active litigation and one procedural victory to challenge the wider order. >> that procedural victory is related to those faces, those coming to the microphone throughout the day, of those who are in the gray, those that were detained across the country that was not going to be a tom hanks story stuck in an airport. nobody wanted that. instead, what happened is you had lawyers mobilizing by the dozens, three or four to the number of individuals, three times, if you will, the number of folks that were detained

today all across the country and therein lies what you're talking about, that that was the opening, potentially, here to give a larger opening later on for the aclu. it's been great having you here to give us the context and what we are hearing because there's so much as you know quote unquote legalese we have had to decipher so far tonight in what's been a breaking and developing story and revelers very close to you there certainly enjoying what has been a victory for them tonight. thank you so much. >> thank you, richard. >> appreciate it. adam schiff still with us, democratic representative from california. one of the statements we heard there coming from the aclu was this shows that the country's system of checks and balances works. >> i think that's very true. i do think we have to be mindful of a few things, though. this stay is only a temporary stay and that is the court when

it ultimately rules on the merits may rule against these refugees, these visa holders, so there's no guarantee that ultimately we prevail in this litigation and that these people are allowed to stay. the other thing is they may be in detention up until those rulings are made in february and that obviously would be a very unjust result to people who have legal process to come here into the country. i think you will find a great many members of congress, myself included, willing to join an amicus brief in support of the petition to free these people who are being detained and who have legal process to enter the country so i think you will find a lot of support certainly among democrats in congress, i would hope among some republicans but that will remain to be seen. >> representative charlie dent, a republican, might be one of those that might help you with that. i spoke to him earlier today. he was one individual that was not necessarily so happy about the developments that was happening today. representative adam schiff, you have stayed with us tonight.

thanks so much for all of your help in understanding what's happening today not only because of your experience as a veteran but also because you understand certainly the issues of immigrants and refugees hailing from the great state of california. we will continue to watch the live pictures coming out of brooklyn, new york, celebrations continue. stay with us. we will have more after a short break.

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[ chanting ]

the energy has not stopped. live pictures brooklyn, new york, 10:30 local time. this is the location where the national stay came down from a federal judge. the big success they are celebrating is that a federal judge saying that those who have already received legal papers to enter the united states, the documents required legally to come to the u.s., can indeed still come to the united states and will not be sent back to their country of origin. question is, how will they be detained, at what pace will they be released from detention and the process by which that might happen, that's all in question. however, those who have not begun the process of the legal paperwork are still affected by the executive order signed by president trump 24 hours ago.

if you are just joining us at the bottom of the hour, that's the very latest. the breaking news, all of these you saw, our chief legal correspondent ari melber there for a second, that's what they are celebrating. in chicago o'hare, this is the scene where we have heard from u.s. senator tammy duckworth, 18 d detainees. it's not just chicago, it's dallas-ft. worth, san francisco international, lax in the southland of california, in dulles airport in virginia. as you can see, young and old that have come out in this last 24 hours to protest against the detainees that have been held estimated by the aclu to be about 200 who are currently detained at locations like this and those affected by this national stay is in the small

thousan thousands. it's early on but the aclu saying 2,000 or 3,000 who have the legal paperwork to enter the united states who benefit from this national stay. that is the latest. along the narrative we have been following is the question of what would be the reaction internationally whach internationally, what would be the reaction to an executive order that affects seven countries in the middle east and those seven countries including iran, yemen, syria, and others, and the potential use of this story for recruitment of those who might bring ill to the united states. that has been the criticism of this executive order and for many who have been out there holding up signs, that is one of the ideas that they are concerned about and why they don't support this executive order.

i want to bring in someone from the "new york times." this is a topic you know well. you were having a conversation earlier tonight as this breaking news was developing about this very topic. what is your thought about the events of the day here? >> well, the islamic state has not yet commented on the events in america but they as well as al qaeda have made clear in the past they consider trump's win to be basically a continuation of the fulfillment of their prophesy. they have long told their recruits that america is at war with islam. that this is not a war against terrorism. this is a war with islam. as you know, the obama administration went to great lengths to try to make it very clear that no, we are not at war with a religion. we are at war with violent people. of course, the events that have just unfolded make it hard to try to maintain that idea.

we have now banned people from seven majority muslim nations from coming to our country. >> the response has been from the obama -- excuse me, from the trump administration earlier today during some of the tape as he was signing three other executive orders and he was asked this. is this a muslim ban. he said no and he also reflected on the signing of it saying it was a total success. so he's not saying this is a muslim ban but as you noted, look at the seven countries that are affected by this executive order, libya, syria, iraq, iran, yemen, somalia, sudan, this isn't necessarily heard that which bway but that's what he's saying. >> it's perhaps not heard that way from inside the halls of the white house but i think it's pretty clearly being heard as something else among our

partners around the world. i just got a direct message on twitter a couple hours ago from an employee of the bbc in baghdad who was in the final stages of applying for his american green card. his son is a diabetic and he was hoping to come to the u.s. to get treatment for his child, and he told me what am i going to do now, please get our story out to the world, and commented on the injustice that had just happened. >> i guess what might be the thematic that might be used by isis for the purpose of recruitment might be the story of for instance, mr. darwesh who served for ten years as an interpreter. you may have heard him speak earlier. when he came through jfk he was detained after serving again the u.s. military, he wanted to join his family in the united states

and then was finally released. what was amazing is he still came out and said america is the greatest country. all that being said, the thematic could be look at this individual who spent ten years of his life in the country that he was trying to help was almost rejecting him. >> exactly. and if you look at the reporting that was done by my colleagues at the "new york times" when he came out to greet reporters, he began to weep and put his hands behind his back mimicking the way in which he was handcuffed by officials at jfk airport and commented on the great irony of somebody who had worked for a decade with our armed forces in one of the most dangerous countries on earth and worked to basically protect our armed forces essentially being put in handcuffs upon his arrival as a

legal immigrant into this country. >> rukmini, thanks for picking up the phone today as we watch some of the breaking news here tonight. thank you so much. >> thank you so much. >> i want to bring in representative nidia velasquez of new york, a democrat, who you saw in those pictures right there. representative, one of the things we were watching as i was looking at this, you began crying as he was speaking. why is that? >> well, i just thought of his family, this man who worked for the united states government. the message and the turmoil, he was exhausted emotionally, physically. he couldn't believe that this happened to him after serving this country. and this is the wrong message that we are sending to the rest

of the world. we need the muslim community and muslim countries to work with us to collaborate with us in our fight against terrorism. so this is ill-advised and to see the community coming out in every part of the country makes me feel so good and so proud, and finally, we got the judge in federal court to grant a nationwide stay. i'm very happy for that. >> representative, we have 30 seconds. you began to really express yourself when he said america's great, america's the greatest country in the world. what else did he tell you that really brought you to this? >> well, he was so concerned and agonizing about the possibility that he will be deported and for

him, this was a matter of life or death. he knew that if he couldn't stay here, that his life was at risk. >> representative, an emotional day for you and so many others. thank you. 10:37 in the evening. thank you for spending time with us tonight. we'll be right back. and now, i help people find discounts, like paperless, multi-car, and safe driver, that help them save on their car insurance. any questions? -yeah. -how do you go to the bathroom? great. any insurance-related questions? -mm-hmm. -do you have a girlfriend? uh, i'm actually focusing on my career right now, saving people nearly $600 when they switch, so... where's your belly button? [ sighs ] i've got to start booking better gigs.

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still following breaking news on msnbc. it is 10:40 p.m. in brooklyn, new york. it sounds like for a moment protests there have stopped for a moment from their celebrations

and there you go. that's what we heard most of the evening for the last two hours, because that's the location if you can see the silver structure behind you, the federal courthouse where a judge there came down and said a national stay has been approved two hours ago and that helping the detainees across the country at airports. that is what we have seen so far. but the question remains how long do they stay in quote unquote, detention. although they cannot be sent back to their country of origin. joining me now is betsy fisher, an attorney at the policy director for the international refugee assistance project. that's the question right now, betsy. the national stay says these individuals that are detained cannot be sent back but what we don't know yet is okay, they're in detention. does this mean they go to those highly controversial detention facilities or is there something in between, or are they kept at the airports?

how do you attack this big question? >> yeah. that's really the question right now. something that we will be seeking to figure out over the coming hours and days what the interim status of these individuals are. this hold also doesn't affect the people who have been barred from entering the united states who are living outside the united states and who are not currently in the united states. so there's a lot of people who are not yet affected by the judge's grant and a lot of questions that we yet to have answered. >> what is the length of process that one goes through to get the approval as a refugee to come to this country? >> for folks from the middle east who are subjected to additional screening above and beyond the typical rigorous process, it's often about two years. it can be much longer than that. people who are affected also

include special immigrant visa holders who go through a similar process and similar security checks but who have actually served the united states government in iraq. so about two years would be common. >> at any one time, how many do we have, those who are in the process of determining whether or not they will get refugee status in this country before they actually get the official legal papers? >> that's a little hard to say. we don't know exactly how many are in the pipeline at any given moment. last year the united states admitted 85,000 refugees and several thousand special immigrant visa holders. so considering it takes about two years, i would expect it [ inaudible ]. >> how will they be affected by this? that's not very clear, either. what we do understand is if you start from zero, you are affected by the executive order that came down on friday but then you have got these tens of

thousands that are mid-process. >> that's correct. those people will continue to live in limbo. the executive order says there is a hold of at least 120 days. the reality is the security checks, the medical checks that people go through, they will have to be started over after processing starts up again. so the ban in reality is going to be much longer than that. many of these people are living in danger, many of them are living in countries where they are not authorized to work so they are living in serious poverty and they will continue to remain not knowing if they will have an opportunity to have a place where they can live in safety. >> one of the concerns here as we look at the 80,000 plus last year on average, 60,000 to 80,000 over the last ten years have come to the united states as refugees, as you know so well, since 1975 we have had

over three million come to the united states as refugees and this all goes back to 70 years ago after we saw during the holocaust the rejection of some refugees, we then as a country quickly shifted gears and have now been that country as has been said so gracefully at the pedestal of the statue of liberty for those who weep for the poor. now this potentially could be a realignment of that very idea in what we stand for and this is a space that you focus on. >> that's right. this order was signed as you said on national holocaust remembrance day. this order would limit the number of refugees to the smallest number ever in the history of the program since it was founded in 1980. we are really distressed to see that at a time when refugee

crises and refugee displacement as at its highest that the united states is taking a step back from its global leadership, back from its responsibility to show that we will protect people who are fleeing persecution through this executive order. >> betsy fisher, thank you so much. attorney and policy director at the international refugee assistance project. thanks for hopping on the phone tonight. >> thank you. >> representative jerry nadler from new york was one of those individuals at jfk airport in new york today where we saw hundreds if not 1,000 gather at two or three levels of a parking garage as well as in front of terminal four. these are some of the pictures from earlier today. this area not built certainly as any airport would be for protests. representative, do you feel like you got what you wanted, because you were out there asking for action. >> well, we have gotten some of what we wanted.

the battle is not over. we were arguing besides the fact the president's order was unconscionable and frankly dumb, no act of terrorism has been committed in the united states since before 9/11 by anybody from these seven countries, but we argued that beside dumb and also these refugees are very heavily vetted before they got visas, and these people were on planes having gotten visas, having been vetted, and suddenly denied entry and were going to be shipped back. some of them being marked men, marked women, because of their cooperation with and help to american military forces in iraq and that's just dishonorable, to put it mildly. our messaging also, our message is that this order by the president is clearly unconstitutional because it's based on religious discrimination since it doesn't apply to minority religions in these countries by the president's own statement, and

secondly, it's illegal beyond unconstitutional because the 1965 immigration act says in so many words, and the president can't overturn the act, the law says that there shall be no discrimination on immigration based on race, color, creed or national origin. so this is flatly illegal as well as flatly unconstitutional. what the judge said today was that since the judge said she believes there is a likelihood the plaintiffs will succeed on the merits, therefore, the government shall take no action to deport any of these people. now, if they are put into detention, the judge invited the lawyers back to seek a stay. right now there's a court order to say you cannot put anybody on a plane to go back pending further court action. that's a partial victory. it's only partial because it hasn't been an order admitting them to the country yet. we do expect that will happen. >> as we have been speaking with

lawyers, immigration lawyers, more questions certainly have arisen tonight as a result of this small victory as you have described it. >> it's not a small victory. it's a partial victory. it means nobody is in danger of being deported. >> what might be the compromise to your criticism of what president trump has done? >> i don't know that there is a compromise. there are two different issues here. actually, two different issues. issue number one is the constitutionality and legality and intelligence or stupidity of the entire order. we think it's unconstitutional, it's illegal and it's also stupid because it's not going to protect our country from desperate people who basically, some of homicidwhom sided with the war on iraq and suffered with us in iraq and all of whom were carefully vetted over a period of up to two years and given visas. the second issue is even if you are going to issue an order like this, make it effective for

people who hadn't already gotten on the plane before the order was issued. you say anybody who got on the plane with a visa before issuing the order can come in like people who got on the plane the day before. now nobody gets on the plane. that's an intelligent way to do a stupid, terrible thing. >> our chief legal correspondent ari melber was saying this may be an opening, though, for those who are critical of this particular executive order because you have faces behind it. we will see what the days bring us because certainly tomorrow we will have a lot to discuss. representative, an individual who was in new york earlier, thank you. we'll take a quick break.

the judge in a nutshell saw through what the government was doing and gave us what we wanted which was to block the trump

order, block trump order and not allow the government to remove anybody who has come and is caught up in the order nationwide. they cannot remove anybody. plus she said they need to give us a list of the names who are being detained because as you all know, we have not been able to track everyone down despite diligent efforts. the government now must give us a name. we will go see each of the people, provide counsel, try and get them out of detention right now but at a minimum they will not be returned back to danger. >> that was live outside of the courthouse earlier today in brooklyn, new york. right now, they continue to celebrate what is happening and they are watching that for us after that national stay was announced by the aclu, the reactions have come in from all across the country. this from secretary hillary clinton, former secretary of state and of course, the democratic nominee in this last election. she says quote, i stand with the people gathered across the

country tonight defending our values and our constitution. this is not who we are. coming in just moments ago. let's go straight to our chief legal correspondent ari melber, who has been outside the federal courthouse in brooklyn. ari, now we are getting reaction from the democratic nominee, the former secretary of state. she has been no doubt i guess watching what is happening across the country and this is something in reaction to not only the executive order itself but then of course to those faces, those individuals that have been detained, estimated to be about 200 by the aclu, and then there are those who are still in limbo. describe for us because as you look at the words of this national stay, there are many individuals, tens of thousands that could be in this gray space right now. >> hi, richard.

i'm live at the brooklyn courthouse. as you can hear, it's a very loud scene. these protesters are gathered spontaneously tonight and stayed when they got that news. i could hear part of your question i believe referencing reactions to this in the political sphere. to be honest, i couldn't hear your entire question. the protesters gathered here which we can get a shot of, they feel this is a huge step and a huge victory. they have been chanting shut it down, they have said immigrants can stay in town, they have been saying they see this as a gigantic step forward in blocking donald trump. the wider fight obviously will continue well into tomorrow and through february when there will be the larger court hearings. also, you were hearing from congressman nadler describing this as a prediction of what could happen. that is how judges look at this in the sense there was a big enough case to issue this stay but we don't ultimately know what the judges will do when the entire case is briefed. >> ari, who are the folks that

are still there? are they new yorkers, are they family members, are they those from the legal community and the activist community? who's there? >> i spoke with people here who said they were political activists, some describe themselves in political or idealogical terms, others said they saw this as a humanitarian issue. i spoke with some religious folks who said they have been going to meetings and organizing conventions since the inauguration. one person mentioned a synagogue near here in brooklyn. if you look, what you see is there's been a festive environment as well. there's been music, there's been bongo drums, there was earlier a band, there were home-made signs. i think you could describe the people here as folks in and around brooklyn, many of whom seem to already care about related issues but who wanted to come out immediately when they heard there was the emergency hearing. i will emphasize again, they had no idea exactly what would happen, that there would be what

they view as a victory, but they gathered and the aclu walked through those doors not 20 feet from where i am, issued the announcement and then there was applause, huge, huge excitement. at that time, hundreds and hundreds, probably 500 people. now i would say as you can see, over 100. >> as a legal follower and our expert, it's been a busy week for you and here we are on a saturday. put into context in the 60 seconds we've got here where this will stand in a year or so, what we are seeing today as we finish out the night. >> well, richard, i think the legal context is clear. donald trump came in with a big bold agenda. he had a mandate he said from the electoral college. he won fair and square. he issued a range of orders, some symbolic and some with real teeth as people saw in the airports. tonight will be remembered as the first step, a procedural step and a temporary step but a first step in what the rest of the country that does not identify with the trump victory sees and in other ways to fight

it. this esis a legal fight in the courts. we heard the aclu say the courts don't care who's president and the president can't ignore the courts. we are seeing the step, the beginning of a legal process. still in an area where as i mentioned the president does have a lot of authority and could ultimately win the defense of most of his ban but tonight i think is the first chapter in what is going to be potentially a long legal book of disputes over president trump's approach to immigration, executive power and other issues. richard? >> nobody better to have there on a night like this. chief legal correspondent for msnbc ari melber, thank you, my friend, for being out there. not only to report on the crowds but to give us the context behind what's happened today. that does it for us here on msnbc on what has been a busy evening. a national stay has come down, what has been called a partial victory, small victory by the aclu but nonetheless victory as some 200 detainees have a bigger

reason to smile tonight and sleep a little better. we will evaluate what the next steps are. we return you now to our regular programming. due to mature subject matter, viewer discretion is advised.