Hawaii Becomes First State To Challenge Trump’s New Travel Ban

The new order, issued Monday, suspends all refugee resettlements and temporarily bars citizens of six Muslim-majority countries from entering the United States.

At a press conference Thursday, Ferguson said he would file a motion asking the judge in the case, James Robart, to apply the restraining order against the old travel ban to the new one.

Both New York and OR will join Washington’s ongoing litigation against the travel ban, the attorney general added. It dropped Iraq from the list of banned countries – while keeping Syria, Libya, Somalia, Iran, Yemen and Sudan on there – and clarified that those legal residents who already have visas can still come to the U.S.

The Trump administration this week issued the new executive order that supplanted an earlier, more sweeping one which had been challenged in court by several states in addition to Hawaii.

After arguments from the Washington State Attorney General’s Office and the Department of Justice, the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals upheld Robart’s ruling to keep the travel ban blocked.

“The president, or anyone else who is subject to any injunction, can not simply repackage it in a way and say, ‘Now we’re clear of that injunction, ‘” Ferguson said.

Lawyers for the state said they will move for a temporary restraining order on March 15, a day before the new executive order is supposed to take effect.

Washington was the first state to sue over the original ban, which resulted in Robart stopping its implementation around the country. Hawaii had also sued over the previous order and is seeking to amend its complaint to include the new ban.

While the new order says it isn’t aimed at any religion, the legal challenges against it are still mounting.

Trump’s “executive order inflicts a grave injury on Muslims in Hawaii, including Dr. Elshikh, his family, and members of his mosque”, Hawaii’s complaint says.

“This second Executive Order is infected with the same legal problems as the first Order”, the state said in court papers filed on Tuesday. The new order applies to those same countries except for Iraq, which has been removed.

Attorneys for the state filed the lawsuit on Thursday in federal court in Honolulu. The state argued the new ban was incompatible with religious freedom provisions and would severely affect Hawaii’s economy and educational institutions.

According to the fact sheet, the Department of Homeland Security will conduct a country-by-country review of the information the six targeted nations provide to the U.S. for visa and immigration decisions. The new executive order doesn’t undo the effect of those statements.