New York [U.S.]: Hours before President Donald Trump’s new travel ban was set to go into effect, a federal judge in Hawaii blocked the ruling which states that travelers from six Muslim-majority countries and refugees will be able to travel to the US.
After multiple federal courts blocked its implementation last month, Trump administration took over a month to rewrite the travel ban order, which unlike the previous executive order, removed Iraq from the list of banned countries, exempted those with green cards and visas, and removed a provision that arguably prioritizes certain religious minorities, reports CNN.
US District Court Judge Derrick Watson concluded that the new executive order still failed to pass legal muster.
“The illogic of the Government’s contentions is palpable. The notion that one can demonstrate animus toward any group of people only by targeting all of them at once is fundamentally flawed,” Watson wrote.
“Equally flawed is the notion that the Executive Order cannot be found to have targeted Islam because it applies to all individuals in the six referenced countries. It is undisputed, using the primary source upon which the Government itself relies, that these six countries have overwhelmingly Muslim populations that range from 90.7% to 99.8%. It would therefore be no paradigmatic leap to conclude that targeting these countries likewise targets Islam. Certainly, it would be inappropriate to conclude, as the Government does, that it does not,” Watson added.
Several states and immigration advocates say the new order still suffers from legal flaws and asked federal judges to weigh in by issuing temporary restraining orders blocking the ban before Thursday.
The new ban would ban people from Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria, and Yemen from entering the US for 90 days and all refugees for 120 days. (ANI)