DOJ to fight travel ban ruling
State Dept. now accepts visas from targeted nations
PALM BEACH, Fla. — President Donald Trump grappled Saturday with the first major setback to his young administration, appearing to question the constitutional checks on his power after a judge’s order reopened the flow of travelers from seven mostly Muslim nations covered by his controversial travel ban.
The Department of Homeland Security said Saturday that it had suspended “any and all actions” related to Trump’s executive action after federal judge James Robart issued a temporary restraining order, effective nationwide, in response to a lawsuit filed by the states of Washington and Minnesota. The suit argued that the president’s moves had amounted to religious discrimination against Muslims in violation of the U.S. Constitution.
On Saturday, the U.S. Justice Department filed a formal notice of appeal seeking to overturn the order by Robart, an appointee of President George W. Bush who is now senior judge of the U.S. District for the Western District of Washington.
The case heads next to the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in California and perhaps eventually the Supreme Court to decide whether Robart’s temporary restraining order should remain in effect. Several other federal courts have also issued emergency stays against portions of the executive order as dozens of lawsuits proceed against it.
In response to Robart’s restraining order, the State Department, which had “provisionally revoked” 60,000 visas since the president signed his Jan. 27 order, said Saturday that it had started re-accepting those visas from people in the countries affected.
Some travelers affected by the suspension already were being allowed to board planes headed to the U.S. Many rushed to catch flights, worried that the window to travel might soon be closed again.
At the airport in Boston, crowds gathered to welcome those from the restricted countries.
“We had more than 40 mostly Iranian nationals land and clear Customs today. We’ve had Tunisians and Syrians too, all flying from Germany on LufthanWEST sa,” said Kerry Doyle, an attorney with the American Immigration Lawyers Association.
Many visa holders flew to Massachusetts even if it wasn’t their final destination because of an earlier Boston federal judge’s temporary order against Trump’s ban that was being applied locally when the national order came down from Seattle.
Trump and his advisers had largely downplayed the confusion his order sparked and insisted it was on solid legal ground, even though on Monday he dismissed the acting attorney general who had told Justice Department attorneys to cease defending it in court.
Trump began Saturday with a series of tweets in which he blasted the “socalled judge” for a “ridiculous” opinion.
“What is our country coming to when a judge can halt a Homeland Security travel ban and anyone, even with bad intentions, can come into U.S.?” he asked later in another Twitter message.
Activists and state officials opposed to Trump’s order celebrated. “The law is a powerful thing. It has the ability to hold everyone accountable to it, and that includes the president of the United States,” Washington state Attorney General Bob Ferguson said at a news conference.
Trump’s Republican allies in Congress remained largely silent over the court’s stay, and GOP leaders declined to respond to the president’s attacks on the judge.
Congressional leaders have been furious after being cut out of the White House’s planning and execution of the travel ban, and they continued Saturday scrambling to repair the chaotic rollout. Many lawmakers have been fielding frantic requests from constituents pleading for help for family members, students and others ensnared in the travel ban.
Some of the confusion has been attributed to a tight circle of decision making in the White House, centered around senior policy adviser Stephen Miller and chief strategist Steve Bannon.
But James Carafano, who oversaw national security planning during Trump’s transition, described a more deliberate approach that flowed from Trump’s own view of a security threat.
“People are kind of in shock and awe of the phenomenon so they’re running around coming up for explanations for it,” said Carafano, a national security and foreign policy analyst for the Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank. “The notion that somehow they could have waited and done more vetting and talked to more people — and what? It would have been less controversial? Give me a break.”