Let them in Court blocks Trump’s ‘unlawful’ travel ban

Judge sides with states against executive order, while Trump aide is forced to backtrack on massacre claim.

AUnited States judge has temporarily blocked President Donald Trump’s ban on travellers and immigrants from seven predominantly Muslim countries, siding with two states that called for a nationwide hold on the executive order that has launched legal battles across the country.

US District Judge James Robart in Seattle yesterday ruled that Washington state and Minnesota had standing to challenge Trump’s order, which government lawyers disputed, and said they had shown that their case was likely to succeed.

‘‘The state has met its burden in demonstrating immediate and irreparable injury,’’ Robart said.

Trump’s order last week sparked protests nationwide and confusion at airports as some travellers were detained. The White House has argued that it will make the country safer.

It wasn’t immediately clear what would happen next for people who had visas to come to America.

White House spokesman Sean Spicer said it would ‘‘file an emergency stay of this outrageous order and defend the executive order of the President, which we believe is lawful and appropriate’’. Soon afterwards, the White House sent out a new statement that removed the word ‘‘outrageous’’.

An internal email circulated among Homeland Security officials told employees to comply with the ruling immediately.

Washington became the first state to sue over the order that temporarily bans travel for people from Iran, Iraq, Syria, Sudan, Somalia, Libya and Yemen and suspends the US refugee programme.

State Attorney General Bob Ferguson said the travel ban significantly harmed residents and effectively mandated discrimination. Minnesota joined the lawsuit two days later.

The two states won a temporary restraining order while the court considers the lawsuit, which aims to permanently block Trump’s order. Court challenges have been filed nationwide from states and advocacy groups.

‘‘Judge Robart’s decision, effective immediately . . . puts a halt to President Trump’s unconstitutional and unlawful executive order,’’ Ferguson said.

‘‘The law is a powerful thing – it ‘‘The law is a powerful thing — it has the ability to hold everybody accountable to it, and that includes the president of the United States.’’ Bob Ferguson

Robart, who was appointed to the federal bench by President George W Bush, asked if there had been any terrorist attacks by people from the seven counties listed in Trump’s order since 9/11. The federal government’s lawyer, Michelle Bennett, said she didn’t know.

‘‘The answer is none,’’ Robart said. ‘‘You’re here arguing we have to protect from these individuals from these countries, and there’s no support for that.’’

Up to 60,000 foreigners from the seven countries had their visas cancelled because of the executive order, the State Department said. That figure contradicted a statement from a Justice Department lawyer on the same day during a court hearing in Virginia about the ban.

The lawyer in that case said about 100,000 visas had been revoked.

The State Department said the higher figure included diplomatic and other visas that were exempted from the travel ban, as well as expired visas.

White House adviser Kellyanne Conway corrected herself yesterday after being widely criticised for referencing a 2011 ‘‘Bowling Green massacre’’ in Kentucky that never occurred, to defend Trump’s travel ban.

Conway said in an interview with MSNBC’s Chris Matthews on Friday that Trump’s executive order was justified in part by the ‘‘Bowling Green massacre’’ of 2011. She added: ‘‘Most people don’t know that because it didn’t get covered.’’

She told how two Iraqis who came to the United States and were radicalised ‘‘were the masterminds behind the Bowling Green massacre’’. No such event occurred.

Conway corrected herself yesterday in a post on Twitter, saying: ‘‘Honest mistakes abound.’’

The phrase ‘‘Bowling Green massacre’’ was the top trending topic on Twitter as thousands of social media users mocked Conway.

‘‘Very grateful no one seriously hurt in the Louvre attack . . . or the (completely fake) Bowling Green Massacre. Please don’t make up attacks,’’ tweeted Chelsea Clinton.

In May 2011, two Iraqi men were arrested in Bowling Green, Kentucky, and charged with attempting to send weapons and money to al Qaeda in Iraq. They admitted using improvised explosive devices against US soldiers in Iraq.

Mohanad Shareef Hammadi and Waad Ramadan Alwan pleaded guilty and were sentenced to life in prison and 40 years in prison respectively.

Prosecutors at the time said neither man was charged with plotting attacks within the US.

Conway said on Twitter that she meant to say ‘‘Bowling Green terrorists’’. She also slammed a television reporter for criticising her.