Att’ys are winners in travel ban

THE TRUMP travel ban continues to keep lawyers busy — while keeping fewer and fewer immigrants out of the country.

The U.S. Justice Department asked the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals on Saturday for a stay of a federal judge’s order expanding the number of travelers from six majority Muslim nations permitted to enter the United States.

On Thursday, U.S. District Judge Derrick Watson of Hawaii delivered the latest legal blow to the ban with a ruling appealed by the feds to the Supreme Court on Friday night.

The Saturday filing asked the appeals court to put a hold on the order until the nation’s top court can consider the DOJ’s challenge in the bitter, incessant battle that began in January.

The case is not expected to reach the Supreme Court until October. The court permitted a scaledback version of the travel ban to begin last month.

Watson’s ruling vastly expanded the type of family relationships that would allow access to the U.S., opening a window for entry by tens of thousands of foreign citizens and refugees.

The judge’s decision allowed grandchildren and grandparents to enter the U.S. And Watson ordered the government to admit refugees formally working with a resettlement agency in the United States.

More than 24,000 refugees already vetted and approved by the U.S. for admission could also benefit from the decision. They are currently barred by the 120-day federal freeze on refugee admissions.

The government is arguing that Watson’s ruling basically gutted the Supreme Court decision on the travel ban.

Watson emptied “the court’s decision of meaning, as it encompasses not just ‘close’ family members but virtually all family members,” the DOJ argued.