close
Thursday March 28, 2024

US court rejects govt appeal to restore travel ban

By Monitoring Report
February 06, 2017

Travellers from seven Muslim countries as well as vetted refugees from all nations continue to enter US; Trump says he wants Putin’s cooperation against Daesh; says if Putin is a killer, then the world has a lot of killers; US is not so innocent too

WEST PALM BEACH, Fla: A federal appeals court early Sunday rejected a request by the Justice Department to immediately restore President Trump’s targeted travel ban, deepening a legal showdown over his authority to tighten the nation’s borders in the name of protecting Americans from terrorism.

In the legal back and forth over the travel ban, the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit in San Francisco said a reply from the Trump administration was now due on Monday, reports the American media.

The ruling means travelers from seven predominantly Muslim nations — Iran, Iraq, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria and Yemen — as well as vetted refugees from all nations could, for now, continue to enter the country.

Those foreigners had been barred by an executive order signed by the president on Jan. 27.The restrictions on all refugees and travelers from the seven countries went into effect a week ago, wreaking havoc at airports across the US and leaving travelers trying to reach the country in limbo.

The legal maneuvering led Mr. Trump to lash out at Judge James Robart of the Federal District Court in Seattle throughout the day, prompting criticism that the president had failed to respect the judicial branch and its power to check on his authority.

The administration says it will use “every legal means” to reinstate President Donald Trump’s executive order on refugees and immigration, but will comply with a judge’s order blocking the ban as the legal battle continues.

Hours earlier Mr Trump had expressed confidence that the stay would be granted.“We’ll win,” he said at a gala at his Mar a Lago resort in Florida. “For the safety of the country, we’ll win.”After the request was denied, though, the president and his allies began preparing for a legal fight that is likely to end at the Supreme Court.

Mike Pence, the vice-president, defended the ban and the president in series of interviews on Sunday while the president remained uncharacteristically quiet.“We’re going to continue to use all legal means at our disposal to stay that order and move forward to take the steps necessary to protect our country,” Mr Pence told Fox News.

Mr Pence also said he did not believe Mr Trump’s attacks on Mr Robart as a “so-called judge” who issued a “ridiculous” ruling were a threat to the constitutional separation of powers.“I think the American people are very accustomed to this president speaking his mind and speaking very straight with them,” he told ABC.

But while the president hadseemed to question Mr Robart’s authority, Mr Pence said there was no doubt that he had the power to block the ban.“He certainly does, and that’s why the administration is complying with that order as we speak,” he said.

A fresh ruling on whether the ban will remain blocked could come as early as Monday afternoon though many experts expect the process to take considerably longer.Four major airlines said that they will permit passengers holding a valid visa from the seven named countries to board US-bound flights.

Gulf carriers, Emirates Airlines, Qatar Airways and Etihad Airways, as well as Air France, made the announcement on Saturday.Meanwhile, President Donald Trump said he wanted Russian President Vladimir Putin’s cooperation against Daesh and rebuffed calls for a tougher stance on Russia over political assassinations inside the country and Moscow´s invasion of Ukraine.

Trump — now two weeks into his four-year term — showed no signs of yielding to demands from within his own Republican Party to distance himself from President Vladimir Putin.“I do respect him. Well, I respect a lot of people, but that doesn’t mean I´ll get along with them,” Trump said in an excerpt of a Super Bowl interview with Fox News’s Bill O’Reilly that will air in full on Monday.

When pressed in relation to Putin’s alleged links to the extrajudicial killing of journalists and dissidents, Trump said, “There are a lot of killers. We have a lot of killers. You think our country is so innocent?”

Michael McFaul, a former ambassador to Russia and adviser to former president Barack Obama, described Trump’s comments as “disgusting”.“This moral equivalency that Trumps continues to draw between the USA and Russia is disgusting (and inaccurate),” he said on Twitter.