HAWAII – The state of Hawaii has challenged the revised executive order days after US president Donald Trump signed it that reinforced travel ban on six Muslim majority countries.
Attorneys for the state filed the lawsuit against the US government Wednesday in federal court in Honolulu.
The state had previously sued over Trump’s initial travel ban, but that lawsuit was put to halt while other cases were underway across the country.
The move came after a federal judge in Honolulu said earlier Wednesday that Hawaii can move forward with the lawsuit.
‘Hawaii is special in that it has always been non-discriminatory in both its history and constitution, twenty per cent of the people are foreign-born, 100,000 are non-citizens and 20pc of the labour force is foreign-born’ Attorney General Douglas Chin said.
The hearing on March 15 would decide as to whether the judges put a halt to the revised order as well or Trump could go on with the ban that has been criticised globally.
Under the revised order which has been drafted after Trump lost a legal battle over the last order, citizens of six-targeted countries holding a valid visa can enter the United States.
Dual nationals with foreign passports, green card holders, diplomats, legal permanent residents of the United States and those who have been granted asylum or refugee status are also exempted from the ban.
Donald Trump who is in second month of his presidency has realised the importance of consultation and so this time, legislators were apprised of the order before it came into force.
Trump’s tussle with judiciary began after a Seattle Judge put a halt to the earlier travel ban order issued on January 27. Trump administration challenged the decision and argued that the ban was justified taking the plea of protecting US as part of his ‘Make America great again’ policy.
However, a three-judge panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals hurled a barrage of questions at a government lawyer inquiring whether the Trump administration’s national security argument was bolstered by evidence that people from the seven countries posed a danger to US.
