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Trump's travel ban temporarily blocked nationwide by federal judge in Seattle Trump's travel ban temporarily blocked nationwide by federal judge in Seattle
(35 minutes later)
A federal judge in Seattle has temporarily blocked Donald Trump’s immigration travel ban on people from seven predominantly Muslim countries. A federal judge in Seattle has ordered a temporary halt on Donald Trump’s travel ban for refugees and people from seven predominantly Muslim nations, opening the path for states to sue the White House over his order.
US district judge James Robart granted a temporary restraining order Friday at the request of Washington state and Minnesota that’s effective nationwide. District judge James Robart granted a temporary restraining order on Friday after hearing arguments from Washington state and Minnesota that the president’s order had unlawfully discriminated against Muslims and caused unreasonable harm.
Trump signed an executive order last week that sparked protests across the country and confusion at airports as some travelers were detained. The ruling is the broadest to date against Trump’s directive. The order, which was signed a week ago, threw airports into chaos over whether to detain or deport travelers. Last Saturday, federal judges in Brooklyn, Boston and other cities ordered the government to temporarily halt deportations of valid visa holders.
Lawyers for the US government argued that the states do not have standing to challenge the order and said Congress gave the president authority to make decisions on national security and admitting immigrants. “We are a nation of laws; not even the president can violate the constitution,” Washington state attorney general Bob Ferguson told reporters outside the courtroom. “Judge Robart did the right thing in declaring this unconstitutional.”
Washington attorney general Bob Ferguson had sued, saying the order is causing significant harm to residents and effectively mandates discrimination. Minnesota joined the suit this week. Washington and Minnesota want a temporary restraining order while the court considers their lawsuit, which says key sections of the order are unconstitutional. A copy of Robart’s decision was not immediately available, and it was not immediately clear when the travel restrictions would be lifted. But Ferguson said that the judge’s order halted the ban’s key provisions.
Washington attorney general Bob Ferguson says the state has a “profound interest” in protecting its citizens from the harms caused by what he called “the irrational discrimination” embodied in Trump’s order. “This decision shuts down the executive order immediately, shuts it down,” he said. “That relief is immediate, happens right now. That’s the bottom line.”
The Washington-based businesses of Amazon, Expedia and Microsoft support the state’s efforts to stop the order. Robart’s order represents a major challenge to the Trump administration, which is expected to appeal to a higher court. The judge declined a request by the justice department attorney to stay his decision. His ruling does not permanently overturn the president’s order, nor does it rule on its longer-term directives to the Department of Homeland Security.
According to the state attorney general, the ruling should lift Trump’s indefinite ban on Syrian refugee admissions, his 120-day ban on the entire refugee program, and his 90-day travel ban for people from seven Middle East and African nations.
Last week, after judges ordered Customs and Border Protection officials to stop deporting travelers with valid visas, enforcement remained confused for days. The Department of Homeland Security said that its officials would comply with court orders, but attorneys said that “rogue” agents continued to detain and even coerce detained travelers into signing away green cards.
Ferguson alluded to that disorder, calling its attempt at law enforcement an example of “keystone cops”.
“We are a nation of laws,” he said. “I’m certain the president will not like this decision but it his job, it his obligation, his responsibility to honor it, and I’ll make sure he does.”
In court, Washington solicitor general Noah Purcell called the White House’s arguments “frightening”, arguing that they cloaked everything under a veil of national security concerns. The government had argued, he said: “If the president says, ‘I’m doing this for national security’, then the court cannot review that that’s a reasonable reason. Our view is that’s not the law.”
Ferguson conceded that Congress had given the president broad powers to make national security and immigration decisions, but maintained that the order was unconstitutional discrimination. Robart pressed the government hard, however, on the president’s preference for Christian refugees and why the seven nations had been singled out when no citizens of those countries had committed terrorist acts in the US since September 11 2001.
Robart said it seemed like “a bit of a reach to say the president is anti-Islam” based on his comments during the 2016 campaign but also questioned the justice department’s argument that states do not have standing to sue. He noted, for instance, that University of Washington students and faculty had been blocked from the school. “Is that not a direct financial harm?” the judge asked.
The Washington-based businesses of Amazon, Expedia and Microsoft joined the state’s efforts to stop the order.
Elsewhere in the US, a district judge in Virginia ordered the White House to provide a list of names of “all persons who have been denied entry to or removed from the United States” – a total that tops at least 60,000 people, according to the state department.
Also on Friday, the Department of Homeland Security said that there were no plans to extend the order beyond the seven countries listed: Iraq, Syria, Iran, Sudan, Somalia, Libya and Yemen. The agency also said that it would work to clear green-card holders and people who have worked with the US military.