Will Trump ruin the US?

President vows to overturn ‘ridiculous’ ruling lifting ban on Muslims in US

US PRESIDENT Donald Trump lashed out yesterday at a court ruling suspending his controversial ban on travellers from seven Muslim countries, dismissing it as “ridiculous” and vowing to get it overturned.

US District Judge James Robart’s ruling on Friday temporarily lifted the Trump administration’s ban on refugees and visa holders from seven majority-Muslim countries, making them once again free to enter the US.

“The opinion of this so-called judge, which essentially takes lawenforcement away from our country, is ridiculous and will be overturned!” Trump tweeted early yesterday.

Robart said the states of Washington and Minnesota, which brought the case, can sue on the grounds that their economies and residents would be harmed by the ban announced a week ago.

“When a country is no longer able to say who can, and who cannot, come in & out, especially for reasons of safety & security — big trouble!” Trump tweeted minutes earlier.

The ruling eclipsed a Trump administration win earlier on Friday, when a federal judge in Boston refused to extend a temporary ruling

When a country is no longer able to say who can, and cannot, come in & out — big trouble

blocking enforcement at that city’s airport of the ban on the immigrants. Robart, in Seattle, said in his ruling that voiding the order throughout the US was needed for consistency.

US airlines have been informed that Customs and Border Protection (CBP), part of the Department of Homeland Security, is immediately reverting to the operating procedures from before the January 27 executive order, Vaughn Jennings, a spokesman for the trade group Airlines for America, said in an emailed statement.

Qatar Airways will permit citizens from the seven nations and all refugees with valid visas to board its flights for the US, it said in a website posting yesterday. The airline said it had been directed by the CBP to let those people fly. Etihad Airways, based in the United Arab Emirates, made a similar posting.

The White House said the Justice Department would file an emergency request at the earliest possible time to freeze the judge’s ruling.

“The president’s order is intended to protect the homeland and he has the constitutional authority and responsibility to protect the American people,” the statement said.

The ruling is the most comprehensive legal admonishment of Trump’s executive order prohibiting immigrants, students, temporary workers and others from Syria, Iraq, Iran, Sudan, Somalia, Yemen and Libya from entering the US for 90 days. — Bloomberg