Trump travel order to apply to those seeking new visas
The executive order, which goes into effect March 16, bars new visas for people from six predominantly Muslim countries and temporarily shuts down the US refugee program. Having won the first round, those officials and organizations have been picking apart Trump’s more limited restrictions on immigrants and refugees as they ponder what to do before the new policy takes effect 16 March.
A federal judge first suspended the ban in February, and a San Francisco federal appeals panel later held up that decision, effectively suspending implementation of the order.
There are millions of Syrian refugees, the majority of whom are children, seeking asylum anywhere they can find it.
Washington Attorney General Bob Ferguson said Thursday that a judicial injunction that halted President Donald Trump’s travel-ban order last month also should block enforcement of the president’s revised order.
Refugees are still halted from entering the country for 120 days, but the new order removed an indefinite ban on all refugees from Syria.
Trump’s new executive order was designed with the intention of avoiding the legal hurdles.
The new order aims to withstand court challenges while still barring new visas for citizens from six mainly-Muslim countries and shutting down the United States refugee program.
Washington and Hawaii have made similar claims, arguing that Trump’s travel ban is an effort to carry out the Muslim ban he promised during his campaign and a violation of the First Amendment, which bars the government from officially favoring or disfavoring any religion.
Although it is in a different form, Trump’s new order shares the same conceptual underpinning as its more-egregious predecessor, which Trump signed on January 27 only to blocked by a federal appeals court: Even people who in no way are linked to criminal activity are suspect simply due to their religion and nation of origin.
We must, as a united people, urge U.S. Sen.
Travel bans violate human rights.
The first order was hit by more than two dozen lawsuits, including a challenge brought by Washington state and joined by Minnesota. The new order is also likely to sow further confusion about USA immigration policies. The president can not rewrite that law by executive order, the states argue.
“The Secretary of Homeland Security may conclude that certain information is needed from particular countries even if it is not needed from every country”, the order says.
As many tore apart the executive order and its focus on six Muslim-majority countries, others looked at its impact on a small refugee program in Central America.
In filing a lawsuit Wednesday night, Hawaii said the revised order would harm its Muslim population, tourism and foreign students.