Hawaii to challenge Trump’s new travel ban
HONOLULU (AP) — Hawaii has become the first state to file a lawsuit against US President Donald Trump’s revised travel ban, saying the order will harm its Muslim population, tourism and foreign students.
Attorneys for the state filed the lawsuit against the US government Wednesday in federal court in Honolulu. The state had previously sued over Trump’s initial travel ban, but that lawsuit was put on hold while other cases played out across the country.
Hawaii gave notice Tuesday night that it intended to file an amended lawsuit to cover the new ban, which plans to goes into effect on March 16.
The revised executive order bars new visas for people from six predominantly Muslim countries and temporarily shuts down the US refugee program. It doesn’t apply to travelers who already have visas.
“Hawaii is special in that it has always been non-discriminatory in both its history and constitution,” said Attorney General Douglas Chin, whose office has also asked for a temporary restraining order against the ban.
“Twenty percent of the people are foreign-born, 100,000 are non-citizens and 20 percent of the labor force is foreignborn.”
Chin, who noted the state has budgeted about $150,000 for an outside law firm to help with the lawsuit, said people in Hawaii find the idea of a travel ban based on nationality distasteful because they remember when Japanese Americans were sent to internment camps during World War II. Hawaii was the site of one of these camps.
People in Hawaii know that the fear of newcomers can lead to bad policy, Chin said.
The move came after a federal judge in Honolulu said earlier Wednesday that Hawaii can move forward with the lawsuit.
US District Judge Derrick Watson granted the state’s request to continue with the case and set a hearing for March 15 — the day before Trump’s order is due to go into effect.