[JURIST] The White House [official website] issued a statement [text] on Monday declaring that Sally Yates [CNN backgrounder] would be replaced as acting Attorney General after she directed the Department of Justice (DOJ) [official website] not to defend President Donald Trump’s [official profile] recently executed immigration order [text]. Earlier that day, Yates issued a letter [text] to US attorneys across the nation questioning the justice and legality of Trump’s executive order. Her statement concluded that the DOJ will not present arguments defending the order until she has deemed it appropriate. Thus, the statement effectively overruled [NYT report] a previous statement by the DOJ Office of Legal Counsel [official website], which approved the order “with respect to form and legality.” The White House response stated that Yates “betrayed the Department of Justice by refusing to enforce a legal order designed to protect the citizens of the United States.” The statement criticized Yates as being an Obama official “weak on borders and very weak on illegal immigration” and called for “tougher vetting” for foreign travelers for the sake of national security. Dana Boente [NYT backgrounder], US Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia, will take Yates’ place as acting Attorney General until Alabama Senator Jeff Sessions [official profile] is confirmed by the Senate for the official attorney general position. Boente has expressed his intentions to uphold the controversial order as the nation continues to debate its long term effects.

On Friday Trump issued an executive order restricting access to the US for refugees and visa holders from Iraq, Syria, Iran, Sudan, Libya, Somalia and Yemen. The order also indefinitely suspends the entry into the US of Syrian refugees. The order further suspended admission of refugees from any country for 120 days while the administration is reviewing the visa program and limited the number of possible refugees for 2017 to 50,000. Over the weekend, several federal judges blocked [JURIST report] parts of the executive order. The attorney generals of 16 states, plus the District of Columbia, issued a joint statement [JURIST report] on Sunday calling the order “un-American.” It is currently expected that Jeff Sessions will be confirmed as Attorney General and will support Trump’s executive order. Sessions was nominated [JURIST report] for the attorney general position in November. The Republican senator and former US attorney had been the first senate member to support Trump [CBS/AP report] during his presidential campaign, and he later worked with Trump to construct immigration, trade and counterterrorism policies. In the past, Sessions has been accused of racism and support of mass deportation of illegal immigrants, which he addressed [JURIST reports] during his confirmation hearings. Last week the Senate Judiciary Committee [official website] agreed to delay [Alabama Today report] the vote on Sessions’ confirmation until the end of January. The Trump Administration has stated that the confirmation is “being wrongly held up by Democrat senators for strictly political reasons.”