A federal judge is allowing Virginia to join a lawsuit challenging the President Donald Trump's travel ban. The ruling by U.S. District Judge Leonie Brinkema on Friday, 3rd February, 2017 greatly expands the scope of the lawsuit, which was initially focused only on the legal permanent residents, commonly called as green-card holders.

The Virginia Attorney General Mark Herring, a Democrat, who had sought to join the lawsuit and broaden its scope. Herring's motion indicates that he would seek protections for those on student and work visas and those with refugee status as well. Judge Brinkema indicated a willingness to consider the cases involving anyone who had been issued a visa and had it revoked.

A government lawyer told the judge that more than 100,000 people have had their visas revoked since the ban went into effect. After the hearing, the State Department said that the figure is less than 60,000, and that the 100,000 figure includes diplomatic visas which are exempted from the travel ban, and also expired visas.

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"The legal issues in this case are complex, but in many ways this case gets to the heart of who we are as Americans. We are a country and a Commonwealth that are welcoming and open. We do not discriminate based on religion, race, or national origin. That is why we will continue to fight," the Attorney General Mark Herring said.

In the separate ruling, the judge ordered that the names be released of all  the Virginia residents who were denied entry because of the ban. Brinkema, who oversaw the case of Sept. 11 conspirator Zacarias Moussaoui, also says that she had never seen the public outpouring as many as she has seen in this case.

She also said, "This order touched something in the U.S. that I've never seen before. People are quite upset."

In addition to Virginia, there are several other court challenges across the country:

By Mrudula.