Recently, to my surprise, my lawyer unequivocally informed me that Portugal is not necessarily allowing pre-residence-card ARI applicants from non-visa-free countries to enter Portugal without a separate Schengen visa, even if the flight originates from a non-Schengen country such as the UK.
This contradicted my prior understanding as well as many of the postings on this forum, so I questioned her repeatedly, but she insisted that anyone attempting to enter Portugal with a passport from a country that is not entitled to enter Portugal visa-free will be at risk of denied entry without either a Portugal residence card or separate Schengen visa.
Perhaps there has been some confusion as many of the posters on this forum are able to enter Portugal visa-free, and the Portuguese system may have allowed them to remain after arrival. This should be unsurprising as we all know that laws, regulations, and procedures are applied inconsistently in Portugal — just look at the contagem de tempo discussion as evidence.
In any case, the status and rights of ARI applicants from non-visa-free countries are far from secure or clear.
Also, let’s not discuss US immigration policy or other US political topics on this thread. Nobody agrees on basic facts about current events in the US (and I would dispute what you said as well), so going down that road will turn into an off-topic flame war.
Let’s keep the insults and personal attacks to Portugal-only!
