President Donald Trump fired acting Attorney General Sally Yates Monday night, hours after she ordered Justice Department lawyers to stop defending his executive order barring travel from seven Muslim-majority countries, according to a White House statement.

Trump named Dana Boente, U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia, as Yates’ replacement until the president’s pick for attorney general, Alabama Sen. Jeff Sessions, is confirmed, according to the statement.

“The acting attorney general, Sally Yates, has betrayed the Department of Justice by refusing to enforce a legal order designed to protect the citizens of the United States,” the statement said. “This order was approved as to form and legality by the Department of Justice Office of Legal Counsel.

Yates — a career federal prosecutor and Obama adminstration holdover — wrote earlier Monday that she must ensure the department’s position is both “legally defensible” and “consistent with this institution’s solemn obligation to always seek justice and stand for what is right.”

Her memo to department lawyers said, “At present, I am not convinced that the defense of the executive order is consistent with these responsibilities nor am I convinced that the executive order is lawful.”

The White House statement on Yates’ firing noted her place in Obama Administration and described her as “weak on borders and very weak on illegal immigration.”

In a statement released late Tuesday night, U.S. Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-New York) said Yates’ firing “underscores how important it is to have an Attorney General who will stand up to the White House when they are violating the law . . . The Attorney General should be loyal and pledge fidelity to the law, not the White House. The fact that this administration doesn’t understand that is chilling.”

Trump sought earlier Monday to blame the Delta computer outage, protesters and the “tears of Senator Schumer” on weekend chaos at airports following issuance of the order.

He and his aides said national security was their priority, and White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer at a briefing condemned the uproar as being “blown out of proportion.”

Opponents in the Democratic and Republican parties and at mass demonstrations nationwide said the travel ban amounts to a religious test.

Spicer elaborated on a Trump tweet by saying 109 people were held for questioning out of 325,000 who traveled to the United States from other countries in a 24-hour period.

“It’s a shame that people were inconvenienced, but at the end of the day we’re talking about a couple hours,” Spicer said of those stopped at airports. Detainees included a Stony Brook University graduate student who was released on Sunday.

The press secretary said securing the nation is the president’s foremost goal: “We’re going to put the safety of Americans first. We’re not going to wait and react.”

Trump’s executive order, signed Friday afternoon, indefinitely bars Syrian refugees, suspends the entry of all other refugees for 120 days and bans citizens of seven predominantly Muslim countries that Trump called “sources of terror” for 90 days.

Delta Air Lines said a computer failure disrupted operations Sunday night. The company said in an early Monday advisory that its systems had returned to normal, but there were more flight cancellations.

Demonstrators gathered by the thousands at Kennedy and other airports to denounce Trump’s travel ban as discriminatory and send the message that immigrants should be welcomed.

Trump in his tweet insulted Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.), who grew teary-eyed Sunday at a Manhattan news conference where he called the executive action “mean-spirited and un-American.”

Schumer, the Senate minority leader, called for a vote Monday afternoon on legislation by Sen. Diane Feinstein (D-Calif.) to rescind Trump’s executive order.

Over the weekend, Sens. John McCain (R-Ariz.) and Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) were among the Republicans critical of the ban. They called it a “self-inflicted wound in the fight against terrorism.”

Spicer told reporters that Trump spoke by phone with Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to express his condolences over the deadly attack on a Quebec City mosque on Sunday.

The shooting is a reminder of what the Trump administration wants to be “proactive rather than reactive when it comes to our nation’s safety and security,” Spicer said.

The New York Immigration Coalition said Monday the number of travelers held for questioning was “as high as 52” early Sunday, but all those detained over the weekend have been released.

Volunteer lawyers at Kennedy Airport working with the coalition say they have represented 44 people in connection with the travel ban. Of the 44, two were sent back to Sudan and Iran, and both of them had visas, the lawyers said.

Of the 42 people who were released, one was a refugee from Syria, the lawyers said.

With Chau Lam and The Washington Post</s>WASHINGTON: The acting US attorney general, a holdover from the Obama administration, ordered Justice Department lawyers Monday to not defend President Donald Trump´s ban on refugees and other travellers from seven Muslim countries.

In a memo, Acting Attorney General Sally Yates -- who served as the agency´s number two official under Barack Obama and is serving as the top law enforcement official in the country until Trump´s nominee is confirmed -- said she doubted the legality and morality of the president´s executive order.

"My responsibility is to ensure that the position of the Department of Justice is not only legally defensible, but is informed by our best view of what the law is after consideration of all the facts," Yates wrote in the memo widely distributed to US media.

"At present, I am not convinced that the defense of the executive order is consistent with these responsibilities nor am I convinced that the executive order is lawful," Yates added.

"Consequently, for as long as I am the acting attorney general, the Department of Justice will not present arguments in defense of the executive order, unless and until I become convinced that it is appropriate to do so."

The order signed on Friday suspended the arrival of all refugees for a minimum of 120 days, Syrian refugees indefinitely and bars citizens from Iran, Iraq, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria and Yemen for 90 days.

Several federal judges have since filed temporary stays.

Yates´s directive means that the US government has no authorized courtroom representation in lawsuits and other legal challenges currently pending in the courts against Trump´s order and its implementation.

The move is largely symbolic, as Trump´s nominee to be attorney general, Jeff Sessions, is likely to be confirmed soon.

The memo exposes Yates to being fired by Trump.

Sessions faces a vote early Tuesday in the Senate Judiciary Committee and must then be confirmed by the full Senate before taking office.

On Sunday, attorney generals from 16 US states, including California and New York, condemned Trump´s directive as "unconstitutional" and vowed to fight it.</s>President Donald Trump fired Acting Attorney General Sally Yates Monday night, after Yates ordered Justice Department lawyers Monday not to defend his immigration order temporarily banning entry into the United States for citizens of seven Muslim-majority countries and refugees from around the world.

In a press release, the White House said Yates had “betrayed the Department of Justice by refusing to enforce a legal order designed to protect the citizens of the United States.”

The White House has named Dana Boente, U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia, as acting attorney general. Boente told The Washington Post that he will agree to enforce the immigration order.

Earlier on Monday, Yates ordered Justice Department lawyers not to defend President Trump’s immigration order temporarily banning entry into the United States for citizens of seven Muslim-majority countries and refugees from around the world, declaring in a memo that she is not convinced the order is lawful.

Yates wrote that, as the leader of the Justice Department, she must ensure that the department’s position is “legally defensible” and “consistent with this institution’s solemn obligation to always seek justice and stand for what is right.”

“At present, I am not convinced that the defense of the Executive Order is consistent with these responsibilities nor am I convinced that the Executive Order is lawful,” Yates wrote. She wrote that “for as long as I am the Acting Attorney General, the Department of Justice will not present arguments in defense of the Executive Order, unless and until I become convinced that it is appropriate to do so.”

Yates is a holdover from the Obama administration, but the move nonetheless marks a stunning dissent to the president’s directive from someone who would be on the front lines of implementing it.

Also Monday, State Department diplomats circulated various drafts of a memo objecting to Trump’s order, which was issued Friday. The document is destined for what’s known as the department’s Dissent Channel, which was set up during the Vietnam War as a way for diplomats to signal to senior leadership their disagreement on foreign policy decisions. More than 100 diplomats have signed the memo, which argues that the immigration ban will not deter attacks on American soil but will generate ill will toward U.S. citizens.

What will happen next is unclear. A Justice Department official, speaking on the condition of anonymity, said those who would normally defend the order under Yates’s authority can no longer do so. Yates will probably be replaced soon by Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.), Trump’s attorney general nominee, who could be confirmed as early as Thursday or Friday. The Senate Judiciary Committee is scheduled to consider his nomination Tuesday, and the entire Senate must wait one day before voting.

A spokeswoman for Sessions declined to comment. A White House spokeswoman did not immediately return an email seeking comment.

White House domestic policy adviser Stephen Miller said on MSNBC that Yates’s decision was “a further demonstration of how politicized our legal system has become.”

“It’s sad that our politics have become so politicized that you have people refusing to enforce our laws,” Miller said.

A Justice Department official familiar with the matter said Yates felt she was in an “impossible situation” and had been struggling with what to do about a measure she did not consider lawful. A Justice official confirmed over the weekend that the department’s office of legal counsel had been asked to review the measure to determine if it was “on its face lawful and properly drafted.”

In her memo, though, Yates said her role was broader. She wrote that an office of legal counsel review does “not address whether any policy choice embodied in an Executive Order is wise or just,” nor does it “take account of statements made by an administration or its surrogates close in time to the issuance of an Executive Order that may bear on the order’s purpose.”

That could be a reference to Trump’s campaign trail comments about a “Muslim ban” or the recent assertion by Trump surrogate Rudolph W. Giuliani that the president had asked him “the right way to do it legally.”

Yates’s memo came as civil rights lawyers and others across the country increased the pressure on Trump on Monday to dial back the ban – filing or threatening to file legal challenges to the executive order as they worked to determine if people were still being improperly denied entry or detained.

The defiant legal conclusion from the country’s top law enforcement official will surely boost their arguments. Lee Gelernt, deputy director of the ACLU’s Immigrants’ Rights Project, who worked on one of the legal challenges, said, “It sends a very strong message that there’s something very wrong with the Muslim ban.”

Just days after stepping down from office, former president Barack Obama weighed in through a spokesman, seeming to back those demonstrating against Trump’s decree and declaring his opposition to “discriminating against individuals because of their faith or religion.”

Obama said that he was “heartened by the level of engagement taking place in communities around the country” – an apparent reference to protests at airports nationwide. He also disputed Trump’s claim that his ban was based on Obama administration decisions.

Separately, more than 100 former Cabinet secretaries and senior national security and military officials from the Obama, George W. Bush and other administrations called on the current and acting heads of the Departments of Justice, State and Homeland Security to dial back enforcement of the order.

But George J. Terwilliger III, a deputy attorney general in the George H.W. Bush administration, said Yates’s memo was a “foolish, naked political move by what appears to be an ambitious holdover official” that would only create “unnecessary disorder.”

“She has to be asked to resign immediately,” Terwilliger said. “Look, the executive branch of our government is unitary. There’s only one boss, and that boss has spoken. If some subordinate official thinks that his direction is illegal, than the choice is to resign.”

Even as Yates issued her memo, civil rights advocates said they still had significant questions about how the executive order was being enforced and even who it might be affecting.

A lawsuit in Virginia claimed that dozens of people may have been forced to give up their green cards by Customs and Border Protection agents, though that figure could not immediately be substantiated. Lawyers in Los Angeles said they had received similar reports, though they were still exploring them.

Lawyers were also working to determine if anyone might still be in custody.

The ACLU’s Gelernt said that lawyers were “having trouble independently verifying anything because the government will not provide full access to all the detainees.” Of particular concern, he said, was that the government had not turned over a list of detainees, as it had been ordered to do by a federal judge in New York. He said lawyers might be back in federal court in the next day or so to forcibly get access to it.

The ACLU’s suit in New York is perhaps the most significant of a growing number of legal challenges to the order. The Council on American-Islamic Relations also filed a sweeping challenge Monday, alleging that the order is meant “to initiate the mass expulsion of immigrant and non-immigrant Muslims lawfully residing in the United States.” The lawsuit lists 27 plaintiffs, many of them lawful permanent residents and refugees who allege that Trump’s order will deny them citizenship or prevent them from traveling abroad and returning home. Lawyers with the Northwest Immigrant Rights Project filed a similar challenge in Washington state.

Bob Ferguson, Washington state’s attorney general, said Monday that he, too, plans to file a federal lawsuit seeking an immediate halt to the order’s implementation – making him the first state official to do so. That lawsuit has the support of Microsoft and Amazon, two companies based in Washington state. (Amazon owner Jeffrey P. Bezos owns The Washington Post in his personal capacity and has voiced Amazon’s opposition to the order personally).

The White House, meanwhile, continued to defend Trump’s executive order. White House press secretary Sean Spicer said that one lawsuit “doesn’t make any sense” and sought to minimize the action as simply subjecting 109 people to more rigorous screening.

According to State Department statistics, about 90,000 people received nonimmigrant or immigrant visas in fiscal year 2015 from the seven countries affected by Trump’s executive order.</s>January 31, 2017

 by Julie Pace, Eric Tucker and Joseph Pisani, The Associated Press

WASHINGTON—In an extraordinary public showdown, President Donald Trump fired the acting attorney general of the United States Jan. 30 after she publicly questioned the constitutionality of his refugee and immigration ban and refused to defend it in court.

The clash Monday night between Trump and Sally Yates, a career prosecutor and Democratic appointee, laid bare the growing discord and dissent surrounding an executive order that halted the entire U.S. refugee program and banned all entries from seven Muslim-majority nations for 90 days. The firing, in a written statement released just hours after Yates went public with her concerns, also served as a warning to other administration officials that Trump is prepared to terminate those who refuse to carry out his orders.

Yates’ refusal to defend the executive order was largely symbolic given that Sen. Jeff Sessions, Trump’s pick for attorney general, will almost certainly defend the policy once he’s sworn in. He’s expected to be confirmed Jan. 31 by the Senate Judiciary Committee and could be approved within days by the full Senate.

Yet the firing reflected the mounting conflict over the executive order, as administration officials have moved to distance themselves from the policy and even some of Trump’s top advisers have made clear that they were not consulted on its implementation.

As protests erupted at airports across the globe, and as legal challenges piled up in courthouses, Yates directed agency attorneys not to defend the executive order. She said in a memo Monday she was not convinced it was lawful or consistent with the agency’s obligation “to stand for what is right.”

Trump’s press secretary, Sean Spicer, soon followed with a statement accusing Yates of having “betrayed the Department of Justice by refusing to enforce a legal order designed to protect the citizens of the United States.” Trump named longtime federal prosecutor Dana Boente, the U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia, as Yates’ replacement. Boente was sworn in privately late Monday, the White House said, and rescinded Yates’s directive.

Meanwhile, the heads of some of the world’s biggest companies are fighting back against President Donald Trump’s temporary immigration ban, calling it un-American and bad for business.

The CEOs of Ford and Goldman Sachs are two of the latest high-profile executives to say they don’t support the executive order the president signed last week.

A host of other big businesses, including Apple, Google and a number of other large tech firms came out against the ban over the weekend. Other companies said they will help employees affected by the ban or, in the case of Starbucks, hire refugees.

Businesses already have a complicated relationship with Trump, who has been openly critical of companies planning to build plants in Mexico or charge what he sees as too much for fighter jets. Some have announced hiring plans and investments in the U.S., saying they like Trump’s plans to reduce regulation and lower corporate taxes.

But the corporate reaction to the executive order was strong, quick and harsh.

“This is unprecedented,” said Bill Klepper, an adjunct management professor at Columbia Business School in New York.

Trump said the executive order, signed Friday, was necessary to stop “radical Islamic terrorists” from coming to the U.S. It included a 90-day ban on travel to the U.S. by citizens of Iraq, Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria, or Yemen, and a 120-day suspension of the U.S. refugee program. The White House did not respond to a request for comment Monday.

It could be risky for businesses to speak out publicly, since Trump likes to fight back and criticize companies from his Twitter account. But public-relations experts said businesses have no choice, especially if the ban negatively affects their employees or customers.

“No company has gone out of business putting their customers and employees first,” said Matt Friedman, co-founder of Tanner Friedman Strategic Communications in Farmington Hills, Michigan.

Following the tech firm push-back over the weekend, Coca-Cola Co. CEO Muhtar Kent said the soda maker was against the travel ban, and General Electric Co. CEO Jeff Immelt said the industrial conglomerate would make its “voice heard” with the new administration and Congress.

Ford Motor Co. said it does not support the policy “or any other that goes against our values as a company,” according to a letter signed by the automaker’s CEO Mark Fields and Executive Chairman Bill Ford. General Motors Co. sent a note to employees saying it will support any who can’t return to the U.S. because of the ban. But other automakers, Nissan Motor Co. and Honda Motor Co., were silent.

The auto industry, a frequent target of Trump’s ire for moving jobs overseas, is walking a fine line, trying to avoid punishing tariffs and hoping Trump gives them some relief on corporate taxes and fuel economy standards.

And Goldman Sachs Group Inc., whose former employees are some of Trump’s most trusted advisers, also pushed back.

“This is not a policy we support,” said the bank’s CEO, Lloyd Blankfein, in a voicemail to employees.

Drugmaker Merck & Co. said it will offer legal advice and other assistance to its employees, as did furniture seller Ikea.

But taking a position on political matters can be risky for companies.

The hashtag #BoycottStarbucks was trending on Twitter Monday after the company announced it will hire 10,000 refugees over the next five years at its coffee shops around the world. Starbucks Corp. said that it recognizes “that sometimes there are those who may disagree with us, and we respect these diverse points of view and will continue to listen.”

—AP reporters Matthew Lee, Lolita C. Baldor, Erica Werner, Jonathan Lemire, Vivian Salama, Mae Anderson, Candice Choi, Anne D’Innocenzio, Barbara Ortutay, Ken Sweet, Linda A. Johnson, Dee-Ann Durbin and Michael Liedtke contributed to this report.</s>Economic Survey 2017: Narendra Modi government to present economic report card in Parliament today; Top 5 things to know

Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley will table the Economic Survey in Parliament today. The Economic Survey is a report card on the economy during this fiscal that will also show the direction of government policy in the year ahead. It will be followed by the presentation of the Budget 2017 on February 1. The Survey is expected to indicate the government’s priorities and thrust areas for the forthcoming Budget. The Finance Ministry of India presents the Economic Survey in the parliament every year, just before the Union Budget. It is the ministry’s view on the annual economic development of the country.

Donald Trump fires acting US attorney general Sally Yates after she refuses to enforce immigration order

US President Donald Trump fired the federal government’s top lawyer Sally Yates on Monday after she took the extraordinarily rare step of defying the White House and saying the Justice Department would not defend his new travel restrictions targeting seven Muslim-majority nations. The White House said on Twitter that Dana Boente, US Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia, would replace Yates, an appointee of former Democratic President Barack Obama, as acting U.S. attorney general.

With the Trump administration mounting pressure, Pakistani authorities tonight put Mumbai attack mastermind and Jammat-ud-Dawa chief Hafiz Saeed and four others under detention under an Anti-Terrorism Act. Saeed was at Masjid-e-Qudsia Chauburji in Lahore when police descended there to implement the order of detention issued by Punjab Province’s Interior Ministry yesterday in pursuance to a directive from the Federal Interior Ministry on January 27, JuD activists and Pakistani media said. He “is at Masjid-e-Qudsia Chauburji and a heavy contingent of police has surrounded the JuD headquarters,” JuD official Ahmed Nadeem, who was present at the premises of the outfit, told PTI by phone.</s>WASHINGTON — In an extraordinary public showdown, President Donald Trump fired the acting attorney general of the United States after she publicly questioned the constitutionality of his refugee and immigration ban and refused to defend it in court.

The clash Monday night between Trump and Sally Yates, a career prosecutor and Democratic appointee, laid bare the growing discord and dissent surrounding an executive order that halted the entire U.S. refugee program and banned all entries from seven Muslim-majority nations for 90 days. The firing, in a written statement released just hours after Yates went public with her concerns, also served as a warning to other administration officials that Trump is prepared to terminate those who refuse to carry out his orders.

Yates’ refusal to defend the executive order was largely symbolic given that Sen. Jeff Sessions, Trump’s pick for attorney general, will almost certainly defend the policy once he’s sworn in. He’s expected to be confirmed Tuesday by the Senate Judiciary Committee and could be approved within days by the full Senate.

Yet the firing reflected the mounting conflict over the executive order, as administration officials have moved to distance themselves from the policy and even some of Trump’s top advisers have made clear that they were not consulted on its implementation.

As protests erupted at airports across the globe, and as legal challenges piled up in courthouses, Yates directed agency attorneys not to defend the executive order. She said in a memo Monday she was not convinced it was lawful or consistent with the agency’s obligation “to stand for what is right.”

Trump’s press secretary, Sean Spicer, soon followed with a statement accusing Yates of having “betrayed the Department of Justice by refusing to enforce a legal order designed to protect the citizens of the United States.” Trump named longtime federal prosecutor Dana Boente, the U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia, as Yates’ replacement. Boente was sworn in privately late Monday, the White House said, and rescinded Yates’s directive.

Also late Monday, the acting head of Immigration and Customs Enforcement was removed. The administration didn’t offer any explanation for the move, only said via Twitter that Daniel Ragsdale is returning to his previous position as deputy director. ICE executive associate director Thomas Homan was elevated to the role of acting chief.

Homeland Security Secretary John Kelly said in a statement that Homan had led efforts “to identify, arrest, detain, and remove illegal aliens.” The statement didn’t mention Ragsdale.

The chain of events bore echoes of the Nixon-era “Saturday Night Massacre,” when the attorney general and deputy attorney general resigned rather than follow an order to fire a special prosecutor investigating the Watergate scandal. The prosecutor, Archibald Cox, was fired by the solicitor general.

Yates, a holdover from the Obama administration who was the top federal prosecutor in Atlanta and later became Loretta Lynch’s deputy, was not alone in her misgivings about the policy and its rollout.

At least three top national security officials — Defense Secretary Jim Mattis, Homeland Security Secretary John Kelly and Rex Tillerson, who is awaiting confirmation to lead the State Department — have told associates they were not aware of details of the directive until around the time Trump signed it. Leading intelligence officials were also left largely in the dark, according to U.S. officials.

Tennessee Sen. Bob Corker, the top Republican on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said that despite White House assurances that congressional leaders were consulted, he learned about the order from the media.

A large group of career diplomats circulated several drafts of a memo arguing that the order Trump signed last week will not make the U.S. safe, saying it runs counter to American values and will fuel anti-American sentiment around the world.

Spicer challenged those opposed to the measure to resign. “They should either get with the program or they can go,” he said.

Trump’s order pauses America’s entire refugee program for four months, indefinitely bans all those from war-ravaged Syria and temporarily freezes immigration from Iraq, Syria, Iran, Sudan, Libya, Somalia and Yemen. Federal judges in New York and several other states issued orders that temporarily block the government from deporting people with valid visas who arrived after Trump’s travel ban took effect and found themselves in limbo.

Yates on Monday said that she had reviewed the policy and concluded that it was at odds with the Justice Department’s mission. She said that though other lawyers in the department had reviewed the order, their review had not addressed whether it was “wise or just.”

“I am responsible for ensuring that the positions we take in court remain consistent with this institution’s solemn obligation to always seek justice and stand for what is right,” Yates wrote in a letter.

Trump said the order had been “approved” by Justice Department lawyers. However, the department has said the Office of Legal Counsel review was limited to whether the order was properly drafted, but did not address broader policy questions.

The blowback underscored Trump’s tenuous relationship with his own national security advisers, many of whom he met for the first time during the transition.

Mattis, who stood next to Trump during Friday’s signing ceremony, is said to be particularly incensed. A senior U.S. official said Mattis, along with Joint Chiefs Chairman Joseph Dunford, was aware of the general concept of Trump’s order but not the details. Tillerson has told the president’s political advisers that he was baffled over not being consulted on the substance of the order.

U.S. officials and others with knowledge of the Cabinet’s thinking insisted on anonymity in order to disclose the officials’ private views.

Despite his public defense of the policy, the president has privately acknowledged flaws in the rollout, according to a person with knowledge of his thinking. But he’s also blamed the media — his frequent target — for what he believes are reports exaggerating the dissent and the number of people actually affected.

After a chaotic weekend during which some U.S. legal permanent residents were detained at airports, some agencies were moving swiftly to try to clean up after the White House.

Homeland Security, the agency tasked with implementing much of the refugee ban, clarified that customs and border agents should allow legal residents to enter the country. The Pentagon was trying to exempt Iraqis who worked alongside the U.S. and coalition forces from the 90-day ban on entry from the predominantly Muslim countries.</s>Image copyright Getty Images Image caption Sally Yates refused to enforce Donald Trump's controversial travel ban

Donald Trump has fired the acting US attorney general after she questioned the legality of his immigration ban.

Sally Yates, who was appointed by Barack Obama, ordered justice department lawyers not to enforce the president's executive order.

A White House statement accused Ms Yates of "betraying" the justice department and being "weak on borders".

Mr Trump replaced her with Dana Boente, US attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia.

Mr Boente said he was "honoured to serve President Trump" and immediately directed his department to enforce the controversial order.

Mr Trump also replaced the acting director of the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Daniel Ragsdale, who has been in the post since 20 January. He is the former deputy director.

No reason was given for Mr Ragsdale's sacking. He has been replaced by Thomas Homan, the executive associate director of enforcement and removal.

Mr Trump's order temporarily banned nationals from seven Muslim-majority countries from entering the US, and sparked street protests in the US and abroad.

Ms Yates, a career prosecutor who served as deputy attorney general under Barack Obama, said in a letter that 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.

Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption Democratic Senator Richard Blumenthal paid tribute to Sally Yates for "taking a stand"

Within hours, the White House announced: "President Trump relieved Ms Yates of her duties."

A statement claimed she had "betrayed the department of justice by refusing to enforce a legal order designed to protect the citizens of the United States".

It also described her as "weak on borders and very weak on illegal immigration".

Democrats hits back at Ms Yates' dismissal. Senator Chuck Schumer, the party leader, said in a statement that the "attorney general should be loyal and pledge fidelity to the law, not the White House. The fact that this administration doesn't understand that is chilling".

"Monday Night Massacre?" Analysis by Anthony Zurcher, North America reporter, BBC News

Donald Trump's critics are calling it the "Monday Night Massacre". That's a reference to President Richard Nixon's Saturday night sacking of his attorney general during the depths of the Watergate scandal of 1973, the last time top justice department officials were forced out by a president.

This time around is a bit different, however. Acting Attorney General Sally Yates essentially forced Mr Trump's hand when she ordered justice department lawyers not to defend the president's recent immigration order in court.

Mr Trump could not abide such defiance from an Obama Administration holdover due for replacement soon anyway. Once again, however, his White House team could not help but turn the rhetorical volume up to 11 in announcing the firing, accusing Ms Yates of having "betrayed" the justice department.

Ms Yates's move follows on the heels of a similarly extraordinary reaction to a letter, signed by more than 100 career state department officials, condemning the immigration action as un-American.

It's easy to imagine that this administration - just over a week in power - feels set against a Washington bureaucracy seeking to undermine it at every turn. If that kind of bunker mentality grows in the days ahead, this political bloodletting likely will be only the beginning.

Is Trump's immigration order legal?

Her replacement, Mr Boente, was also appointed by Barack Obama, in 2015. He was confirmed by the US Senate - making him eligible for appointment while Mr Trump waits for his own nominee to be approved.

Senator Jeff Sessions is awaiting Senate approval.

Ms Yates was questioned by Mr Sessions in 2015 at her confirmation hearing for the post of deputy attorney general. He pressed her on whether the attorney general and deputy attorney general should say no to the president if the president asked for something "unlawful".

"I believe the attorney general or deputy attorney general has an obligation to follow the law and the constitution," she said.

Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption In 2015, Jeff Sessions asked Sally Yates if the attorney general should ever say no to the president

Meanwhile, hundreds of diplomats and foreign servants have been drafting a "dissent cable" to formally criticise the president's executive order.

A draft version of the cable said that immigration restrictions will not make the US safer, are un-American and will send the wrong message to the Muslim world.

The ban bars citizens from Iraq, Syria, Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan and Yemen.

The White House has consistently defended Mr Trump's executive order despite the controversy, with press secretary Sean Spicer saying diplomats should "get with the programme".

Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption White House makes ultimatum to diplomats

In addition, former President Barack Obama has apparently broken with the convention of former presidents avoiding comment on their successors.

Commenting on the protests about the immigration order, President Obama said he was "heartened".

"Citizens exercising their constitutional right to assemble, organise and have their voices heard by their elected officials is exactly what we expect to see when American values are at stake," he said in a statement, which did not mention Mr Trump by name.</s>US President Donald Trump on Monday fired the acting attorney general, a holdover from the Obama administration, after she ordered Justice Department attorneys not to defend his controversial immigration orders.

In a sharply worded statement, the White House called Sally Yates "weak on borders and very weak on illegal immigration" and also criticized Democrats for not yet confirming the appointment of attorney general-designate Jeff Sessions.

"The acting attorney general, Sally Yates, has betrayed the Department of Justice by refusing to enforce a legal order designed to protect the citizens of the United States," the White House said in a statement.

"This order was approved as to form and legality by the Department of Justice Office of Legal Counsel," it said.

Federal prosecutor Dana Boente will serve as acting attorney general "until Senator Jeff Sessions is finally confirmed by the Senate, where he is being wrongly held up by Democrat senators for strictly political reasons," it said.

With Trump's White House facing multiple lawsuits and worldwide opprobrium over an order banning migrants from seven Muslim nations, Yates had whipped the rug from under her boss in a defiant and damaging parting shot.

In a memo to Department of Justice staff, Yates -- a career government lawyer promoted by Barack Obama -- expressed doubts about the legality and morality of Trump's decree, which has prompted mass protests.

"My responsibility is to ensure that the position of the Department of Justice is not only legally defensible, but is informed by our best view of what the law is," Yates wrote.

"I am not convinced that the defense of the executive order is consistent with these responsibilities nor am I convinced that the executive order is lawful," she added.

"For as long as I am the acting attorney general, the Department of Justice will not present arguments in defense of the executive order, unless and until I become convinced that it is appropriate to do so."

Yates's directive means that the US government, at least for now, has no authorized courtroom representation in the lawsuits.

It was a remarkable act of defiance against a tough-talking president who has showed little sign of brooking insubordination.

Sessions has not yet been confirmed by Congress. He faces a vote on the Senate Judiciary Committee Tuesday and must then be confirmed by the full Senate.

If confirmed, Sessions would almost certainly reverse course.

But Democratic lawmakers have vociferously opposed Trump's order and Republicans are privately seething over the way his White House has handled the issue.

The order signed on Friday suspended the arrival of all refugees for a minimum of 120 days, Syrian refugees indefinitely and bars citizens from Iran, Iraq, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria and Yemen for 90 days.

Several federal judges have since filed temporary stays.

Firing Yates has uncomfortable echoes of President Richard Nixon's "Saturday night massacre" during the Watergate scandal.

Then, Nixon fired the Watergate special prosecutor, prompting the departures of his attorney general and deputy attorney general. The events catalyzed Nixon's impeachment.

On Sunday, attorneys general from 16 US states, including California and New York, condemned Trump's directive as "unconstitutional" and vowed to fight it.</s>Donald Trump Fires The Acting Attorney General Of The United States

WASHINGTON - President Donald Trump fired acting Attorney General Sally Yates on Monday night, hours after she said the Justice Department would not defend Trump's executive order on immigration.

White House spokesman Sean Spicer said that Yates had been relieved of her duties. Dana Boente, U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia, was named as acting attorney general.

Spicer's statement said Yates had "betrayed the Department of Justice" by refusing to defend Trump's order. The statement said Yates, a career prosecutor who Trump named as acting attorney general, is "weak on borders and very weak on illegal immigration."

Boente will serve until Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.) is confirmed as attorney general.</s>In making Dana Boente acting attorney general, President Donald Trump has elevated a longtime federal prosecutor best known for his handling of public corruption cases.

Boente, a 31-year veteran of the Justice Department, most recently oversaw the prosecution of former Virginia Gov. Robert McDonnell - a case ultimately overturned by the Supreme Court. Previously, Boente oversaw the government's cases against U.S. Rep. William Jefferson, D-La., and former New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin, D.

Lawyers who have known Boente, who was U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia, said he has a reputation for being tough but even handed. While he has not been vocal about his political views, they said, he would not have agreed to be thrust into the role of defending Trump's controversial executive order banning some migrants unless he believed it was legally sound.

"Dana was very circumspect about his politics," said former assistant U.S. attorney Gene Rossi, now a Democratic candidate for lieutenant governor. "I never saw Dana in the 22 years I worked with him make what I considered to a political decision . . . He will try his best to enforce what he thinks is the law."

But Rossi added, "If he thought that the executive order was illegal, I doubt very seriously he would have taken the position of acting attorney general."

"I don't think he would do it if he felt that it was morally wrong to do it," Zwerling said. "I believe he looked inside himself and decided he could morally and legally defend the position. I don't know how he votes, but he's no liberal. The Eastern District of Virginia is a very tough jurisdiction and he ran it as a very tough jurisdiction."

The Trump administration said Boente, who replaced fired Acting Attorney General Sally Yates, was sworn in about 9 p.m. Monday.

In an interview, Boente noted his office already had been supporting the president's order in a challenge brought in Virginia federal court.

"I was enforcing it this afternoon," Boente said. "Our career department employees were defending the action in court, and I expect that's what they'll do tomorrow, appropriately and properly."

Simon Sandoval-Moshenberg of the Legal Aid Justice Center, who filed a complaint on behalf of two Yemenese men sent away from Dulles under the executive order, said he had spoken with Boente about the case by phone Sunday and Monday.

The U.S. Attorney's job in the Eastern District of Virginia is an important and high-profile one. The Eastern District is home to the CIA and the Pentagon, and its prosecutors often handle terrorism cases. The office has about 300 lawyers and other employees working in Alexandria, Richmond, Norfolk and Newport News.

Boente was sworn in to head the office in February of 2016 but had served in that post on an interim basis since replacing Neil MacBride in late 2013.

When he was sworn in, then-Attorney General Loretta Lynch called Boente one of the department's "consummate utility players" and said he was "one you could always count on to be there for you."

Under Boente's leadership, prosecutors won corruption convictions against McDonnell, R, and his wife, Maureen, only to see those decisions overturned by the Supreme Court. Boente's office pushed to retry the couple; they were overruled by higher-ups at the Justice Department.

Prosecutors working for Boente also convicted CIA leaker Jeffrey Sterling under the Espionage Act and television news analyst Wayne Simmons for pretending to be a CIA agent. Boente has overseen ten prosecutions of Americans accused of supporting the Islamic State, eight of which have resulted in convictions. The remaining two are set for trial this year.

In the past several years, Boente's office has also aggressively targeted opioid dealers implicated in fatal overdoses, taking on what Boente has described as a worsening epidemic in Virginia. "I'm very concerned that we haven't seen the worst of this," Boente said at a forum late last year in Loudoun County. "If you don't know someone who's had a problem with addiction, you will."

Boente was nominated to lead the U.S. Attorney's Office in Virginia by former President Barack Obama on Oct. 8, 2015, and confirmed by the senate two months later.

Before he became a U.S. attorney, Boente worked in the tax division and as an interim attorney in both the Eastern District of Virginia and the Eastern District of Louisiana.

Boente, who is from Carlinville, Illinois, lives in Northern Virginia with his wife. The couple have grown children and grandchildren.

Boente said he presumes he will serve until Sen. Jeff Sessions, R-Ala., is confirmed.
Sally Yates, the acting Attorney General of the United States, is fired after ordering employees of the United States Department of Justice not to enforce the President's ban due to personal doubts over its legality. Dana J. Boente becomes the new acting attorney general.