The Independent View: Federal Court Blocks Trump's Latest Travel Ban

A Federal Court in Hawaii Blocked President Trump’s Third and most Extensive Initiative to Limit Travel into the United States on Tuesday, just Hours before it was set to go into effect.

The International Refugee Assistance Project, the Iranian Alliances Across Borders. and various Individual Plaintiffs, including the State of Hawaii, filed Lawsuits in Hawaii and Maryland after the Travel Ban, which would indefinitely Ban Citizens from Chad, Iran, Libya, North Korea, Somalia, Syria, Venezuela, and Yemen from entering the Country, was announced on Sept. 24th. They View this Ban as yet another thinly veiled attempt to target Muslims, Six out of the Eight Countries on the List are Muslim-Majority.

“EO-3 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,’” the Court Order said. The Ban also “plainly discriminates based on nationality in the manner that the Ninth Circuit has found antithetical to both Section 1152(a) and the founding principles of this Nation.”

Non-Visa Holders from most of the Countries listed have already been Banned for the last several Months, after the Supreme Court Ruled to allow Parts of a Previous Travel Ban to go into Effect in June. The latest Initiative removed Sudan from the List, and added Chad, North Korea, and Venezuela. It was planned to go into effect Wednesday.

The Changes were interpreted by many as mere Political Posturing, an attempt to make the Ban appear less overtly Targeted toward Muslims. “This is the third time we feel compelled to ask the courts to block the President’s Muslim ban,” Becca Heller, Head of the International Refugee Assistant Project, said Monday. “Each new version is just an updated version of the previous ones, and they all have one goal: to keep out people primarily from majority-Muslim countries. Any supposed national security goals are not based in fact. Instead, millions of people will be harmed indefinitely, including American families and institutions. We will not rest until this cruel and senseless policy is blocked for good.”

This New Order doesn’t directly implicate the U.S. Refugee Resettlement Program because the Trump Administration had already taken Measures to Limit the Number of Refugees able to seek Safety in the Country. The 120-Day Suspension included in the Second Iteration of the Ban Expires on Oct. 24th. Experts don’t think the White House will Replace it with a New Refugee Ban because the Administration already Slashed the Annual Resettlement Ceiling to 45,000 for Fiscal year 2018, the lowest it’s been since the Program’s Inception in 1980.

The Series of Limits placed on Immigration places tens of thousands of People already in the Resettlement Pipeline in limbo. Plus, it Precludes so many more from being able to begin the Process.

UPDATE
Judge Theodore Chuang, a Federal District Court Judge in Maryland, Temporarily Blocked the Majority of the President’s Ban on Nationals from Eight Countries, but said the President could still Ban Individuals from North Korea, Business Officials from Venezuela, and Individuals lacking a Credible Claim of a Bona-Fide Relationship with a Person or Entity in the United States.