as the back and forth legal battle over president trump s travel ban continue, tears of joy for one syrian family today. they first arrived right after the president s executive order on immigration was signed and they were actually sent back to syria the same day. but with the president s order on hold now, you re looking at today pictures. just yesterday the members of the assali family landed at jfk airport in new york to the joy of family members you just saw. gabe gutierrez joins me from l allentown with more on this happy reunion. reporter: hi, kate, good afternoon. we re in allentown, pennsylvania, in the neighborhood of the assali family.
their family members, six of them, were greeted with tears of joy, not only at new york s jfk airport but also here in allentown. the governor tom wolf was here with a bouquet of flowers welcoming the family to the u.s. it s been an extraordinary nine days or so for this family. they arrived in the u.s. in philadelphia nine days ago on saturday. just hours after president trump signed that executive order. in the confusion following that executive order, they were turned away, sent back to damascus, even though they had been approved for green cards, their attorneys say, and they are immigrants, not refugees. over the past couple of days, their attorneys have been fighting to find to get them back here. their return is not directly related to the stay on friday because their return was already in motion before that. again, they were able to come here because, as the governor said today, they did it the right way. they were immigrants and in the governor s view, they should you had ha