Attorneys general from California, New York, 13 other states and Washington, D.C., in a statement have condemned and pledged to fight what they called Trump’s “dangerous” and “unconstitutional” order.
U.S. judges blocked the federal authorities from enforcing President Donald Trump’s executive order restricting immigration from seven Muslim-majority countries.
However, lawyers representing people covered by the order said some authorities were unwilling on Sunday to follow the judges’ rulings.
udges in California, Massachusetts, Virginia and Washington state, each home to international airports, issued their rulings after a similar order was issued on Saturday night by U.S. District Judge Ann Donnelly in New York’s Brooklyn borough.
Donnelly had ruled in a lawsuit by two men from Iraq being held at John F. Kennedy International Airport.
While none of the rulings struck down Friday’s executive order by the new Republican president, the growing number of them could complicate the administration’s effort to enforce it.
The rulings add to questions about the constitutionality of the order, said Andrew Pincus, a Mayer Brown partner representing two Yemeni men who were denied U.S. entry from an overseas flight despite being legal permanent residents.
“People have gone through processes to obtain legal permanent resident status, or visas,” Pincus said. “There are serious questions about whether those rights, which were created by statute, can be unilaterally taken away without process.”
Trump’s order halted travel by people with passports from Iran, Iraq, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria and Yemen for 90 days, and stopped the resettlement of refugees for 120 days.
He said these actions were needed “to protect the American people from terrorist attacks by foreign nationals admitted to the United States.”
The order sparked a global backlash, including from U.S. allies that view the actions as discriminatory and divisive.
The U.S. Department of Homeland Security on Sunday said it “will comply with judicial orders,” while enforcing Trump’s order in a manner that ensures those entering the United States “do not pose a threat to our country or the American people.”
