Visas to Be Reinstated After Judges Rule Against Trump Ban

Judge in Virginia Demands a List of All Stopped People

A week after signing, legal challenges continue to rage against President Trump’s executive order banning refugees and banning all travel from seven Muslim-majority countries, with multiple federal judges coming in tonight with new rulings challenging the order, and the Customs and Border Patrol (CBP) confirming they will begin reinstating visas on the basis of those rulings. The State Department later confirmed they will allow via holders into the US.

Judge James Robart, in Seattle, signed a temporary restraining order blocking all enforcement of the order, nationwide. His full written ruling has not been released yet, however, and the Justice Department is withholding comments on whether they’ll comply until they see the ruling.

Within the administration, flat out ignoring court orders has been treated as very much an option. Last week, the CBP was spurning a court order requiring detained travelers be given access to lawyers at the DC Airport, with police at the airport shooing Congressmen away who tried to get access to the detainees. At the time, the Justice Department insisted they wouldn’t even attempt to defend the order in court, though Trump has since fired that acting attorney general in favor of another.

Legal challenges to the existing detention of travelers has been difficult because there isn’t public information on who is even being held. This sparked an order from a Virginia judge that the White House provide a complete list of everyone denied entry since the ban went into effect.

Meanwhile, Judge Victoria Roberts, in Detroit, also ruled against the executive order, insisting it could not be applied to travelers who had lawful permanent residence in the United States at the time of Trump’s ban.

Author: Jason Ditz

Jason Ditz is Senior Editor for Antiwar.com. He has 20 years of experience in foreign policy research and his work has appeared in The American Conservative, Responsible Statecraft, Forbes, Toronto Star, Minneapolis Star-Tribune, Providence Journal, Washington Times, and the Detroit Free Press.