On Wednesday, 3/7/17, the Aloha State filed a legal challenge against President Trump’s new travel ban restricting entry from six Muslim majority countries. Hawaii’s state attorney general calls the new travel ban “Muslim ban 2.0.” Originally, Hawaii filed against the first travel ban but was blocked after the state of Washington challenged the ban. Hawaii would be the first state to file against the new executive order.
The new order took off Iraq from the list, which brought the countries affected down to six. It also dropped a section that would have permanently suspended admission of Syrian refugees into the country. Next, it removed any language preferencing religious discrimination, leading to an unconstitutional order. The ban is also vague about what it will achieve – it is wanting a period to consider what additional categories of information should be added. Overall, the new ban is simply a watered down and more ambiguous version of the first one.
There are also some contradictions in Trump’s new executive order. Trump said “if the ban were announced with a one week notice, the “bad” would rush into our country during that week.” However, Trump did not only take a week, he took ten days. Neal Katyal, Outside counsel for Hawaii said “this isn’t about protecting us from the bad guys rushing into our country, this is about politics.” Katyal is correct, the consistent effort to ban immigrants from those six listed countries is supposed to be an effort to highlight national security, but rather his ambiguity and contradictions prove something otherwise.
The new executive order, although left vague, leaves a gap open for any further restrictions that could be placed in the future. Perhaps that is the whole point of the ambiguity in the new ban; however, whether or not more states stand up like Hawaii, the people will always be able to keep their voice and fight for what is truly right.
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