Photograph: Justin Lane/EPA The crowd swelled to several hundred as the day wore on, and included two members of congress who spent part of the day trying to win the release of about a dozen people they said had been detained.

The International Rescue Committee is calling President Donald Trump`s suspension of the U.S. refugee resettlement program a "harmful and hasty" decision. In a statement issued late Friday night after the suspension was announced, IRC President David Miliband said, "America must remain true to its core values. "The IRC statement declared that the U.S. vetting process for prospective refugees is already robust ? involving biometric screening and up to 36 months of vetting by "12 to 15 government agencies. America must remain a beacon of hope. "Miliband praised The United States` record as a resettlement destination and said, "This is no time for America to turn its back on people ready to become patriotic Americans.

10:26Trump is facing mounting criticism for his ban on all Syrian refugees entering the US and a halt on arrivals from a string of mostly Muslim countries, Guardian staff report. The Council on American-Islamic Relations announced it would be filing a federal lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of the order ?because its apparent purpose and underlying motive is to ban people of the Islamic faith from Muslim-majority countries from entering the United States?. Chuck Schumer, Democratic leader in the Senate, said:Tears are running down the cheeks of the Statue of Liberty tonight as a grand tradition of America, welcoming immigrants, that has existed since America was founded, has been stomped upon. The US president?s executive order, named Protection of the Nation from Foreign Terrorist Entry into the United States, places a 90-day block on entry to the US from citizens from Iran, Iraq, Syria, Yemen, Sudan, Libya and Somalia.

Joking that "opposites attract," Prime Minister Theresa May called on President Donald Trump on Thursday to renew the "special relationship" between Britain and the United States and lead in a new, changed world. The days of Britain and America intervening in sovereign countries in an attempt to remake the world in our own image are over. In the United States for what will be Trump`s first meeting with a foreign leader since he took office last week, May signaled a shift in foreign policy, bringing her position more in line with that of Trump. "So we - our two countries together - have a responsibility to lead. She urged the two countries and their leaders to stand united and confront new challenges, including the rise of economies in Asia that people fear could "eclipse the West," the threat of Islamic extremism and a resurgent Russia.