News > Immigration In The United States
New refugee/Muslim ban set for March 16 as legal challenges continue
Posted on Mar 15 2017
The revised refugee/Muslim ban is set to take effect on Thursday, March 16. The new order places a 90-day ban on immigrants from the predominantly-Muslim countries of Syria, Somalia, Sudan, Iran, Yemen, and Libya.
The executive order also bans refugee admissions for 120 days ban and reduces the number of refugees who can be admitted this year. The total for the fiscal year, which began on October 1, 2016, was set at 110,000 by President Obama. The executive order reduces that number to 50,000, which means almost no additional refugees can be admitted until after September 30, 2017. The new ban contains a longer list of exceptions than the first ban, which was stopped by federal courts.
Several legal challenges to the new order await court action: Washington’s attorney general leads a challenge that has been joined by several states, Hawaii has filed a separate challenge, several nonprofit groups have filed a challenge in Maryland and in Virginia, and a Wisconsin judge has barred application of the order to one specific Syrian family. Challenges include allegations of violation of due process, discrimination against Muslims, irreparable hardship to refugees, and harm to educational institutions and to Hawaii’s tourism industry.
For more information:
- Full text: Trump’s revised ban on travel from Muslim-majority countries (The Guardian)
- Legal battles to watch over president’s revised travel ban (The Hill)
- Yemeni couple on verge of reuniting in US may be derailed by new travel ban (The Guardian)
- US government says new travel ban ‘substantially different’ (AP in Star Tribune)
- Lawyers face off on Trump travel ban before U.S. judge in Maryland (Washington Post)
For a detailed legal analysis of the arguments, see Lawfare Blog: The Legality of the 3/6/17 Executive Order
- Part I: The Statutory and Separation of Powers Analysis
- Part II: The Due Process Clause Analysis
- Part III: Establishment and Equal Protection Analysis (not yet published)