Trump Suggests To Execute First Travel Ban Order After Two Judges Issued TRO

Donald Trump’s new travel ban was set to take effect on Thursday but federal judges from Hawaii and Maryland have issued a temporary restraining order (TRO) against the same. During his recent rally, Donald Trump said that the new version was the altered one and they “ought to go back to the first one and go all the way.”

Earlier this month, President Donald Trump signed a long-awaited revised travel order temporarily blocking travel for immigrants from six Muslim-majority countries. The new executive order imposed a 90-day ban on travelers from Syria, Sudan, Yemen, Iran, Libya, and Somalia. Trump’s revised immigration order also suspends America’s refugee program for 120 days.

Hawaii’s federal judge, Derrick Watson, stated that Trump’s first executive order and the revised one are illogical.

“Unrebutted evidence of religious animus driving the promulgation of the executive order and its related predecessor … The illogic of the government’s contentions is palpable. The notion that one can demonstrate animus toward any group of people only by targeting all of them at once is fundamentally flawed,” said Judge Derrick Watson.

Judge Watson added that the court had established a strong likelihood that, were the ban to go ahead, it could cause irreparable injury by violating the First Amendment protections against religious discrimination. The judge further cited several comments made by Donald Trump himself and indicated that the motive for the executive order was to ban Muslims to enter America.

“Any reasonable, objective observer would conclude, as does the court for purposes of the instant motion for TRO, that the stated secular purpose of the executive order is, at the very least, ‘secondary to a religious objective’ of temporarily suspending the entry of Muslims.”

During his rally in Nashville on Wednesday, Donald Trump showed his disdain towards the ruling against the travel ban and said that it is a case of “unprecedented judicial overreach.” He even made a point that the constitution gives the sitting president the power to suspend immigration when he deems it to be in the best interest of the country.

“We’re going to fight this terrible ruling. We’re going to take this as far as we need to, right up to the supreme court…I think we ought to go back to the first one [executive order] and go all the way… We’re gonna win it, we’re gonna win it.”

Just a day after the Hawaii judge issued a TRO, another judge from Maryland has also come out to oppose Donald Trump’s revised travel ban orders. Judge Theodore D Chuang ruled that the purpose of Trump’s first and second travel ban orders is to discriminate against Muslims for political reasons.

Two judges on opposite sides of the U.S. derailed President Trump's travel ban. Here are some of their key points: https://t.co/KqPVvTnLAQ pic.twitter.com/Fgtuk5KsaS

— AP Climate (@AP_Climate) March 17, 2017

“Direct statements of President Trump’s animus towards Muslims and intention to impose a ban on Muslims entering the United States, present a convincing case that the First Executive Order was issued to accomplish, as nearly as possible, President Trump’s promised Muslim ban. In particular, the direct statements by President Trump and Mayor Giuliani’s account of his conversations with President Trump reveal that the plan had been to bar the entry of nationals of predominantly Muslim countries deemed to constitute dangerous territory in order to approximate a Muslim ban without calling it one — precisely the form of the travel ban in the First Executive Order,” reads the directly released statement.

Meanwhile, even Bernie Sanders has been very vocal about Donald Trump’s decision to impose a travel ban. Earlier this month, he even dismissed the White House’s claims that the revised travel ban is United States’ way to avoid future terrorist attacks.

This isn’t about keeping America safe. Let’s call it what it is. This ban is a racist and anti-Islamic attempt to divide us up. https://t.co/nDrGdOUNUs

— Bernie Sanders (@SenSanders) March 6, 2017

“Trump’s Muslim ban isn’t about keeping us safe,” he wrote on Twitter. “A president intent on keeping us safe wouldn’t give ideological ammunition to terrorists. Let’s call Trump’s travel ban what it is: A racist and anti-Islamic attempt to divide us up.”

The veteran senator went on to say that if Donald Trump would have respected America’s tradition of keeping religious freedom in the country, then he would not have “resorted to hateful, anti-Islamic rhetoric to justify a ban on travel from six mostly Muslim countries.”

That being said, the revised travel ban, which was due to come into effect on Thursday, now cannot be implemented because of a TRO — which means a further hearing will take place to determine whether it should be executed or not.

[Featured Image by Olivier Douliery-Pool/Getty Images]