WASHINGTON: President Donald Trump’s revamped travel ban faced another legal challenge Friday when the American Civil Liberties Union filed a complaint on behalf of several refugee assistance groups over the controversial executive order.
The new directive, which temporarily closes US borders to all refugees and citizens from six mainly-Muslim countries, was unveiled on Monday as a replacement for one issued in January that was blocked in the federal courts.
The new order denies US entry to all refugees for 120 days and halts for 90 days the granting of visas to nationals from Syria, Iran, Libya, Somalia, Yemen and Sudan. It is due to take effect on March 16.
The first order had also applied to citizens of Iraq but the country was dropped from the new list.
“Putting a new coat of paint on the Muslim ban doesn’t solve its fundamental problem, which is that the Constitution and our laws prohibit religious discrimination,” said Omar Jadwat, director of the ACLU’s immigrant rights project.
“The further President Trump goes down this path, the clearer it is that he is violating that basic rule.”
The ACLU, the preeminent US civil liberties group, and the National Immigration Law Center brought the suit on behalf of the International Refugee Assistance Project and the refugee resettlement group HIAS, as well as several.—APP
