Hawaii urges U.S. Court not to lift Trump refugee ban curbs
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Washington, Sept. 12, 2017 (Reuters/NAN) The State of Hawaii on Tuesday asked the U.S. Supreme Court not to lift curbs imposed by a lower court on President Donald Trump’s ban on most refugees entering the U.S.
Hawaii’s filing came in response to a Trump administration request that was filed on Monday.
It requested to block the lower court’s Thursday decision that loosened the Republican president’s ban by allowing entry to refugees from around the world if they had a formal offer from a resettlement agency.
Lawyers for Hawaii said it would be inappropriate for the high court to second-guess the San Francisco-based 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruling.
The U.S. government can still “bar tens of thousands of refugees from entering the country,” Hawaii’s lawyers said.
The state’s lawyers said that all the lower court ruling did was to “protect vulnerable refugees and the American entities that have been eagerly preparing to welcome them to our shores.
On Monday afternoon, Justice Anthony Kennedy temporarily prevented the appeals court ruling from going into effect while the nine justices considered the administration’s request.
A decision could come at any time.
Without Kennedy’s intervention, the appeals court decision would have gone into effect on Tuesday.
Under the appeals court ruling, up to 24,000 additional refugees would become eligible to enter the U.S. than otherwise would be allowed, according to the administration.
Trump had signed an executive order on March 6 that banned travellers from six Muslim-majority countries.
The countries are Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria and Yemen for 90 days and locked out most aspiring refugees for 120 days in a move the Republican president argued was needed to prevent terrorist attacks.
The Justice Department opted not to appeal another part of Thursday’s ruling that related to Trump’s ban on travellers from the six countries.
The 9th Circuit ruling broadened the number of people with exemptions to the ban to include grandparents, aunts, uncles and cousins of legal U.S. residents. (Reuters/NAN)
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Edited by Celine-Damilola Oyewole/Felix Ajide