Washington AG seeks hearing against Trump’s travel ban on Tuesday

Though the new ban includes numerous exemptions, including for lawful permanent residents and visa holders, Becerra said this was not good enough.

U.S. District Judge James Robart in Seattle successfully blocked President Trump’s initial executive order on immigration in January, on the grounds it was discriminatory and unconstitutional.

Although the Trump Administration has conceded that it changed the original immigration rules for people from Mideast nations in order to overcome federal court rulings against those rules, it has argued in Judge Robart’s court that his enforcement ban does not apply to the second presidential order.

The Trump administration’s decision to issue a revised EO represents a concession of the first order’s legal indefensibility.

Lawyers for New York, Los Angeles, Chicago and other cities filed documents Tuesday with the court supporting Washington state’s lawsuit.

As the Associated Press reports, Washington state Attorney General Bob Ferguson has asked a federal judge for a hearing as soon as Wednesday to attempt to halt the executive order once again.

“The President’s latest travel ban hurts us businesses, violates the Constitution, and encourages religious discrimination”, said Michal Rosenn, Kickstarter’s general counsel. “There are now approximately 1,000 pending domestic terrorism-related investigations, and it is believed that a majority of those subjects are inspired, at least in part, by ISIS”.

”These divisive policies alienate our allies in the Muslim world and fuel anti-American sentiment by sending a message that the United States is out to punish one religion, ” Feinstein said in a statement.

A federal judge in Honolulu is set to hear arguments from both the government and the state of Hawaii on Wednesday.

A legal brief filed by California argues that the state’s residents – including its more than 10 million immigrants and 150,000 global students – will be harmed by the new ban, according to the Los Angeles Times.

Robart initially put a stay on the first travel ban, which was immediately appealed to the Ninth Circuit.

“The Order applies only to individuals outside the country who do not have a current visa, and even as to them, it sets forth robust waiver provisions”, the Department of Justice’s motion said.

Iraq has been dropped from the list after the Iraqi government and the U.S. State Department were able to come to terms over vetting procedures, and, most importantly for court hearings, the order discarded the language that favored persecuted religious minorities. It said Trumps order was legal under a 1952 statute allowing the president to exclude any “class of aliens” who might harm the national interest.

A Syrian “John Doe” plaintiff living in Wisconsin successfully argued that the new travel ban is preventing him from reuniting with his wife and child who are now trapped in Aleppo.

He wanted the ban to be declared unconstitutional and for a halt to be imposed on enforcement against his daughter and his wife, who according to the lawsuit has faced rape threats from pro-regime forces.

He files a lawsuit against the Trump administration, and asks for a temporary restraining order to stop the ban.

A hearing in a separate lawsuit by Hawaii already has been scheduled for Wednesday. Federal lawyers say the revised travel ban is “substantially different” from the original directive. “There’s clearly harm to state budgets, harm to state universities”.