Judge blocks latest Trump curbs on people entering United States

[webfact]

Judge blocks latest Trump curbs on people entering United States

By Dan Levine and Yeganeh Torbati

 

A family exits after clearing immigration and customs at Dulles International Airport in Dulles, Virginia, U.S. September 24, 2017. REUTERS/James Lawler Duggan

 

SAN FRANCISCO/WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A U.S. judge on Tuesday blocked President Donald Trump's latest bid to impose restrictions on citizens from several countries entering the United States, which would have taken effect this week.

 

The open-ended ban, announced last month, targeted people from Iran, Libya, Syria, Yemen, Somalia, Chad and North Korea, as well as certain government officials from Venezuela. It was the third version of a policy that had previously targeted some Muslim-majority countries but had been restricted by the courts.

 

Tuesday's ruling sets up another high stakes battle over Trump's executive authority which legal experts expect will ultimately land in the U.S. Supreme Court. Trump's first travel ban in January caused chaos and protests at U.S. airports before judges halted it.

 

The state of Hawaii sued to block Trump's latest travel restrictions, arguing that federal immigration law did not give him the authority to impose them on six of those countries. Hawaii did not challenge entry restrictions relating to North Korea and Venezuela.

 

U.S. District Judge Derrick Watson in Honolulu said Hawaii was likely to succeed in proving that Trump's latest travel ban violates federal immigration law.

 

The policy "suffers from precisely the same maladies as its predecessor: it lacks sufficient findings that the entry of more than 150 million nationals from six specified countries would be 'detrimental to the interests of the United States,'" Watson wrote.

 

The White House in a statement said the ruling was "dangerously flawed" and that it was confident the courts would ultimately uphold Trump's policy.

 

"These restrictions are vital to ensuring that foreign nations comply with the minimum security standards required for the integrity of our immigration system and the security of our nation," the statement said.

 

The Justice Department called Watson's ruling "incorrect" and said it would appeal "in an expeditious manner."

 

Following the ruling, the U.S. State Department instructed embassies and consulates around the world to "resume regular processing of visas" for citizens of Chad, Iran, Libya, Somalia, Syria and Yemen, a department official said on condition of anonymity.

 

The department will carry out the proclamation for North Korea and Venezuela "with the objective of maximizing national security," the official said, because the order did not apply to restrictions on those countries.

 

As a candidate, Trump had promised "a total and complete shutdown of Muslims entering the United States."

 

In announcing the newest travel restrictions, the White House had portrayed them as necessary consequences for countries that did not meet new requirements for vetting of immigrants and issuing of visas. Those requirements were shared in July with foreign governments, which had 50 days to make improvements if needed, the White House said.

 

A number of countries made improvements by enhancing the security of travel documents or the reporting of passports that were lost or stolen. Others did not, sparking the restrictions.

 

Immigrant advocacy groups cheered the Hawaii ruling.

 

"We're glad, but not surprised, that President Trump's illegal and unconstitutional Muslim ban has been blocked once again," Omar Jadwat, director of the American Civil Liberties Union Immigrants Rights Project, said in a statement.

 

The ACLU and other groups have filed separate challenges to Trump's policy in a Maryland federal court. A ruling is still pending.

 

In the Hawaii case, the judge said that the ban's national security rationale was undermined by not knowing how the president settled on the countries designated by the ban.

 

The judge also said the proclamation likely runs afoul of a prohibition in immigration law on nationality-based discrimination in issuing visas. Watson had blocked Trump's second travel ban in March.

 

In a statement on Tuesday, Hawaii Attorney General Doug Chin said: "Today is another victory for the rule of law."

 

Kiyanoush Razaghi, an immigration attorney with the Catholic Legal Immigration Network who has many Iranian clients, said Iranians still have problems when applying for U.S. visas, including particularly lengthy wait times for security checks.

 

Razaghi said he has told his clients: "You can celebrate, there is no travel ban right now, but be careful because that doesn't mean you are going to get a visa in a reasonable amount of time."

 

(Additional reporting by Andrew Chung in New York and Mica Rosenberg, Lawrence Hurley and Roberta Rampton in Washington; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama, Tom Brown, Grant McCool)

 

-- © Copyright Reuters 2017-10-18

[Get Real]

Nice to see that there are some semi-intelligent creatures in this part of infested madness that is trying to fight the king of the mad bug infestation.

[boomerangutang]

Yet another reason for Trump to hate judges and legislators.  Is there anyone Trump doesn't hate, other than the Kushners and his dwindling core of easily-duped supporters?

[patekatek]

All immigration entries from the banned nations should now be required to arrive, be processed, and permanently housed in Hawaii.   Since this  judge cares so much about these Muslim immigrants, let him and his liberal buddies take care of them.  In a few years they can enjoy the same "No Go" zones  that several European cities now have to endure.  Heck, he might even get a chance to become a future Sharia Law judge.

[hawker9000]

Relax boys & girls.  Just another Obama appointee, citing the always entertaining 9th U.S. Circuit Court, who'll have to be taken to the woodshed by the newly rationalized SCOTUS.   'Guess it takes time to make all those badly needed and long overdue federal judge appointments.

[zaphod reborn]

The judges from Hawaii are always ahead of the curve in ruling on constitutionality.  The Hawaii Supreme Court was the first to strike down a gay marriage ban, although they allowed the legislature to justify re-enacting it.  The reasoning in the immigration ban ruling is the same as the gay rights ban.  In order to set up classifications for discrimination based on immutable characteristics (race, nationality, gender, etc.), the courts are to scrutinize the justification for the classification (nationality is strictly scrutinized, whereas gender is only subject to intermediate scrutiny).

 

Nationality doesn't correlate with security threats.  Therefore, the category being discriminated against is not sufficiently tailored to the concern being addressed.  Trump has to come up with a more restricted category which would keep out threats, but not adversely affect the great majority of non-threatening arrivals.  The proper ruling, but Trump will shop around for a more politically-motivated federal judge.

[joecoolfrog]

39 minutes ago, hawker9000 said:

Relax boys & girls.  Just another Obama appointee, citing the always entertaining 9th U.S. Circuit Court, who'll have to be taken to the woodshed by the newly rationalized SCOTUS.   'Guess it takes time to make all those badly needed and long overdue federal judge appointments.

If you simply want clerks to rubber stamp government policy ( or presidential whim ) why not just sack all the judges ?

[Golgota]

1 hour ago, patekatek said:

All immigration entries from the banned nations should now be required to arrive, be processed, and permanently housed in Hawaii.   Since this  judge cares so much about these Muslim immigrants, let him and his liberal buddies take care of them.  In a few years they can enjoy the same "No Go" zones  that several European cities now have to endure.  Heck, he might even get a chance to become a future Sharia Law judge.

There is no "no go zone" in europe, it is a fantasy created by FAUX News, and you seems to drink from their cup on daily basis.

Please come back when your dear president will ban the Saudi from the US, you know, the guys from the 9/11...

 

[Srikcir]

The Trump administration was asked to present the analysis it has to support its claim for the new ban. Trump attorneys argue that by the very nature of Trump's power as President, no such information is required before the court - must take Trump at his word. To further buttress its position his attorneys also argued that while there is collected data and analysis, it  is classified and cannot be revealed to the court.

 

How else can a fair and reasonable judge rule but to sustain a temporary injunction in order to proceed to a full trial? There are procedures for the court to see classified information.

 

According to anonymous government sources, analyses conducted for Department of Homeland Security didn't justify the new ban (apart from Venezuela & North Korea) nor any of the previous ban versions. So perhaps the reason for "Classified" designation.

[lvr181]

Uh oh, now the again.

[Srikcir]

1 hour ago, Srikcir said:

According to anonymous government sources

CNN did their own analyses recently to answer the question "ISIS arrests: how many are from travel banned countries?"

http://edition.cnn.com/2017/10/17/politics/isis-arrests-travel-ban-countries-numbers/index.html

Since 2014 there were 114 people who were charged with ISIS-related offensives:

 

76 American citizens

20 naturalized Americans and legal permanent residents from non-banned countries

  1 visitor from non-banned countries

  4 undocumented immigrants from non-banned countries

  3 refugees from Bosnia (2) and Iraq (1)

  4 unknown citizenship

  6 naturalized citizens/legal permanent residents from banned countries of Samalia (3), Yemen (2) and Syria (1)

 

Trump would have a better argument to ban American citizens from the US.

 

[JHolmesJr]

7 hours ago, webfact said:

A U.S. judge on Tuesday blocked President Donald Trump's latest bid to impose restrictions on citizens from several countries entering the United States, which would have taken effect this week.

 

amazing....an anti-american judge! What's it going to take for this president to keep the promises he was elected to office on?

[BuaBS]

Can't a presidential executive order override those judges?

[Srikcir]

1 minute ago, BuaBS said:

Can't a presidential executive order override those judges?

Only if the order is not unconstitutional.

US Presidential Orders are not like NCPO Orders that cannot be challenged by any court.

[joecoolfrog]

15 minutes ago, BuaBS said:

Can't a presidential executive order override those judges?

You want your president to be a dictator ? Trump would love that !

[joecoolfrog]

1 hour ago, JHolmesJr said:

 

amazing....an anti-american judge! What's it going to take for this president to keep the promises he was elected to office on?

It would take promises that were realistic to begin with !

[dunroaming]

1 hour ago, JHolmesJr said:

 

amazing....an anti-american judge! What's it going to take for this president to keep the promises he was elected to office on?

No this is a pro-American judge.  There is nobody who fits the anti-American role as well as Donald Trump.

[Green Acres]

11 hours ago, patekatek said:

All immigration entries from the banned nations should now be required to arrive, be processed, and permanently housed in Hawaii.   Since this  judge cares so much about these Muslim immigrants, let him and his liberal buddies take care of them.  In a few years they can enjoy the same "No Go" zones  that several European cities now have to endure.  Heck, he might even get a chance to become a future Sharia Law judge.

This judge cares about the rule of law... The Trumpster is a stain in need of a good bleaching. 

[Scott]

Off-topic posts and replies removed.

[Srikcir]

On 10/18/2017 at 6:45 AM, webfact said:

A U.S. judge on Tuesday blocked President Donald Trump's latest bid to impose restrictions on citizens from several countries entering the United States

Now another federal judge has also blocked the new travel ban.

Notable in his decision:

" the new travel ban "imposed a permanent, rather than temporary, ban on immigrants from the Designated Countries, and has effectively stopped the issuance of immigrant visas indefinitely," .... "the bar on entry is the equivalent of a ban on issuing immigrant visas based on nationality."

http://edition.cnn.com/2017/10/18/politics/second-federal-judge-blocks-trump-travel-ban/index.html

 

[Langsuan Man]

Instead of packing his administration with Goldman Sachs alumni, maybe Trump should have appointed some Harvard Lawyers that just might be able to write an Executive Order that is legally correct, instead of just winging it like they have been doing since January 

 

 

Edited October 19, 2017 by Langsuan Man