Barring any final court ruling, Donald Trump’s revised travel ban will go into effect after midnight on Thursday. The new order, which Trump signed on March 6, is his second attempt after his first executive order saw major blowback from protestors, who believed it specifically targeted Muslims and was unfair to refugees. The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals eventually blocked the ban. This didn’t sit well with Trump, who angrily tweeted to the court that he’d see them in court.
Under the new order, only six countries are on the banned list (Iraq has been removed), and refugees are barred from entering the country for 120 days. Despite tweaked provisions, the new order is still receiving the same immense scrutiny, and some are trying to stop the ban at the 11th hour. Specifically, several states (Hawaii, Washington, and Maryland) are hearing last-minute challenges to the order.
The New York Times writes that those lawsuits allege that Trump’s order is motivated by religion, which is a point his administration has denied while calling it “a straightforward exercise of the president’s national security powers, targeting not a religious group but rather countries that cannot be trusted to screen travelers adequately.” However, CNN’s Jake Tapper pointed out that Trump’s administration has referred to a “ban” in the past, and the order will continue to be criticized even if it goes into effect tomorrow.
(Via The New York Times)