Federal judge halts latest Trump travel ban

UPDATE: A federal judge in Maryland joined a judge in Hawaii this morning in ruling against President Donald Trump’s immigration executive order. U.S. District Judge Theodore Chuang said refusing to issue new visas to travelers from Chad, Iran, Libya, Somalia, Syria, and Yemen would constitute discrimination. “The history of public statements continues to provide a convincing case that the purpose of the Second Executive Order remains the realization of the long-envisioned Muslim ban,” Chuang wrote. He did not rule against the suspension of refugee immigration, which Judge Derrick Watson in Hawaii blocked Tuesday. Chuang’s nationwide injuction does not add to or take away from Watson’s ruling, but it does bolster the arguments of critics of the ban who say it discriminates on the basis of religion by targeting majority Muslim countries. Both Chuang and Watson left in place the ban on new visas for travelers from North Korea and certain Venezuelan officials. In testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee Wednesday morning, Attorney General Jeff Sessions said the law was a necessary tool to fight terrorism. In his opening statement, Sessions said, “The order is lawful, necessary, and we are proud to defend it.”

OUR EARLIER REPORT (10/17/17, 3:57 p.m.): A federal judge in Hawaii put a hold on President Donald Trump’s new travel ban Tuesday, hours before it was set to take effect. Hawaii sued to block the executive order earlier this year, claiming it amounted to a continuation of Trump’s “promise to exclude Muslims from the United States.” The U.S. Supreme Court sided with the Trump administration in the first travel ban case, allowing much of the order to take effect even as the justices expanded the number of potential visitors the government could not keep out. After the first order expired, Trump issued a new one, and Democratic state attorneys general immediately filed new lawsuits. Trump’s new order restricts entry into the United States for citizens of Chad, Iran, Libya, North Korea, Somalia, Syria, and Yemen, as well as some Venezuelan government officials and their families. The previous order focused on Muslim-majority countries, prompting claims of religious discrimination. Trump administration officials insisted visitors from those countries posed a potential security risk. In Tuesday’s ruling, U.S. District Judge Derrick Watson said the new ban “plainly discriminates based on nationality in the manner that the 9th [U.S.] Circuit [Court of Appeals] has found antithetical to … the founding principles of this nation.” Watson said he would schedule an expedited hearing to determine whether to extend his temporary restraining order.