Trump promises new security steps
White House does not rule out possibility of rewriting travel ban order after appeals court setback
US President Donald Trump promised yesterday to introduce additional national security steps, a day after an appeals court refused to reinstate his travel ban on refugees and citizens from seven Muslim-majority countries, and he expressed confidence his order would ultimately be upheld by the courts.
The White House is not ruling out the possibility of rewriting Trump’s January 27 order in light of the actions by a federal judge in Seattle and an appeals court in San Francisco that put the directive on hold, an administration official said.
“We are going to do whatever’s necessary to keep our country safe,” Trump said during a White House news conference with visiting Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe. The Republican president did not answer directly when he was asked whether he would sign a new travel ban.
“We’ll be doing something very rapidly having to do with additional security for our country. You’ll be seeing that sometime next week,” Trump added.
The president said his administration would also continue to go through the court process.
“And ultimately I have no doubt that we’ll win that particular case,” he added, referring to Thursday’s ruling by a three-judge panel of the 9th US Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco, which upheld the lower court’s suspension of his ban.
The administration could appeal the 9th Circuit ruling to the US Supreme Court as early today. NBC News reported that White House lawyers were working on a rewrite of Trump’s executive order that could win federal court approval.— Reuters
AUS court on Thursday unanimously refused to reinstate Donald Trump’s ban on refugees and nationals from seven Muslim-majority countries, dealing the new president and his controversial law-and-order agenda a major defeat.
The San Francisco federal appeals court’s ruling on Trump’s executive order - issued on January 27 with no prior warning and suspended by a lower court a week later - capped a turbulent first three weeks of his presidency.
A defiant Trump quickly pledged to battle on, tweeting within minutes of the decision: “SEE YOU IN COURT, THE SECURITY OF OUR NATION IS AT STAKE!”
“It’s a political decision,” he told reporters later.
The Justice Department had asked the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals to restore the measure on an emergency basis, but the three-judge panel instead maintained the suspension ordered by a federal judge in Seattle.
“We hold that the government has not shown a likelihood of success on the merits of its appeal, nor has it shown that failure to enter a stay would cause irreparable injury,” the judges ruled.
Trump’s decree summarily denied entry to all refugees for 120 days, and travelers from Iran, Iraq, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria and Yemen for 90 days. Refugees from Syria were blocked indefinitely.
The new Republican administration argued the ban was needed to prevent Islamic State and Al Qaida fighters from reaching US soil, but it prompted travel chaos and was roundly rejected by immigration advocacy groups.
Critics say the measure targeted Muslims in violation of US law. Now the case could end up in the Supreme Court.
The San Francisco court said aspects of the public interest favored both sides, highlighting the “massive attention” the case had drawn.
“On the one hand, the public has a powerful interest in national security and in the ability of an elected president to enact policies,” the ruling said.
“And on the other, the public also has an interest in free flow of travel, in avoiding separation of families, and in freedom from discrimination.”
While acknowledging that the Seattle judge’s ruling “may have been overbroad in some respects,” the panel said it was not their “role to try, in effect, to rewrite the executive order.”
“The government has pointed to no evidence that any alien from any of the countries named in the order has perpetrated a terrorist attack in the United States,” the court said.
Civil rights campaigners and state officials applauded the decision, vowing to fight on until the executive order is permanently scrapped.
For now, it means travelers with valid visas can continue to enter the country. Washington Governor Jay Inslee, whose administration sued for the measure to be blocked, hailed a victory for his state and the country, arguing that the ruling showed “no one is above the law, not even the president.” Human Rights Watch senior researcher Grace Meng called the decision “an important declaration of judicial independence, which is crucial for checking harmful overreach by the president.”
Trump had blasted the original suspension in a series of fiery tweets and public statements.
Republican lawmakers jumped to Trump’s defense, with Senator Tom Cotton calling the ruling “misguided,” while Democrats hailed it.
“Pres Trump ought to see the writing on the wall, abandon proposal, roll up his sleeves & come up w/ a real, bipartisan plan to keep us safe,” Senate Democratic minority leader Chuck Schumer tweeted.
Trump’s election rival and Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton tweeted simply: “3-0.”
There was praise from those who had been denied entry to the US when the ban was first imposed.