New York Joins Lawsuit Against Trump’s Revised Travel Ban

Trump issued an executive order in January banning travellers from seven predominantly Muslim countries, including Syria, from entering the United States.

The new directive, which temporarily closes United States borders to all refugees and citizens from six mainly-Muslim countries, was unveiled on Monday as a replacement for one issued in January that was blocked in the federal courts.

Washington was the first state to file a suit over Trump’s original travel ban and succeeded in temporarily blocking the ban on February 3 when James Robart of Federal District Court for the Western District of Washington handed down his decision.

President Donald Trump’s revamped travel ban is already seeing resistance from attorneys general across the country, and now NY is set to join the fray.

On Tuesday night, a day after Trump’s administration announced its new ban, attorneys for the state filed their proposed revision in federal court along with a motion asking that it be allowed to proceed.

The new order is much more narrowly tailored.

The revised order, signed with none of the flourish of his first version, eliminates some of the most contentious aspects in an effort to surmount the court challenges that are sure to come.

The new order, set to go into effect on March 16, also contains exceptions for dual citizens and holders of green cards who want to travel to the USA from the restricted countries.

“It is the president’s solemn duty to protect the American people”, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson told reporters after Trump signed the new order. Exempting noncitizens with green cards or visas means there are far fewer people affected by the executive order who have the right to complain of a due process problem.

New York’s attorney general, Eric Schneiderman, said on Thursday he would be joining Washington’s lawsuit against the new ban and the state of OR said it would join too.

The state of Hawaii already filed a lawsuit against the new executive order, which a federal judge agreed to hear on March 15, just before the order is supposed to go into effect. Syria, Iran, Yemen, Libya, Somalia and Sudan are listed in the new ban.

Ivanka Trump’s landlord is a Chilean billionaire sued the US government.

It also halts the acceptance of refugees for four months, but does not indefinitely bar Syrian refugees as the previous order did.

Washington state did not oppose the administration’s request to end its appeal, the filing said. “To claim the executive order has had an impact on travel would be premature”.

But critics maintain the revised travel ban discriminates against Muslims.