More states seek to halt Trump's new
travel ban in court
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[March 10, 2017]
By Dan Levine and Mica Rosenberg
(Reuters) - Several states said on Thursday
they would move forward with legal challenges to a revised executive
order signed by President Donald Trump this week that temporarily bars
the admission of refugees and some travelers from a group of
Muslim-majority countries.
The new travel order, which is set to take effect on March 16, changed
and replaced a more sweeping ban issued on Jan. 27 that caused chaos and
protests at airports.
The first order was hit by more than two dozen lawsuits, including a
challenge brought by Washington state and joined by Minnesota.
In response to Washington's suit, U.S. District Judge James Robart in
Seattle ordered an emergency halt to the policy last month. That ruling
was upheld by an appeals court in San Francisco.
Washington state Attorney General Robert Ferguson said on Thursday he
planned to ask Robart to confirm that his ruling would also apply to
Trump's revised order, which would halt it from being implemented.
Ferguson told a news conference the new order harmed a "smaller group"
of individuals but that would not affect the state's ability to
challenge it in court.
He said the burden was on the Trump administration to show that the
court ruling from last month did not apply to its new policy.
A U.S. Department of Justice spokeswoman declined to comment on pending
litigation.
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The government has said the president has wide authority to implement
immigration policy and that the travel rules are necessary to protect
against terrorist attacks.
New York's attorney general, Eric Schneiderman, said on Thursday he
would be joining Washington's lawsuit against the new ban and the state
of Oregon said it would join too.
The opposition comes on top of a separate legal challenge to the new ban
brought by Hawaii on Wednesday. Hawaii had also sued over the previous
order and is seeking to amend its complaint to include the new ban. A
hearing in that case is set for next Wednesday, a day before the clock
starts on the new order.
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![](../images/031017pics/news_d9.jpg)
Hawaii Attorney General Douglas Chin speaks at a press conference
after filing an amended lawsuit against President Donald Trump's new
travel ban in Honolulu, Hawaii, March 9, 2017. REUTERS/Hugh Gentry
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The states and immigration advocates argue the new ban, like the
original one, discriminates against Muslims.
MORE EXEMPTIONS
Trump's new executive order was designed with the intention of
avoiding the legal hurdles.
While the new order keeps a 90-day ban on travel to the United
States by citizens of Iran, Libya, Syria, Somalia, Sudan and Yemen,
it excludes Iraq.
Refugees are still halted from entering the country for 120 days,
but the new order removed an indefinite ban on all refugees from
Syria.
The revisions include explicit exemptions for legal permanent
residents or existing visa holders and waivers are allowed on a
case-by-case basis for some business, diplomatic and other
travelers.
The first hurdle for the lawsuits will be proving "standing," which
means finding someone who has been harmed by the policy. With so
many exemptions, legal experts have said it might be hard to find
individuals a court would rule have a right to sue.
(Reporting by Dan Levine in San Francisco and Mica Rosenberg in New
York; Editing by Matthew Lewis and Peter Cooney)
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