A US federal judge has partially blocked President Donald Trump's latest restrictions on refugees seeking to enter the country.
The ruling by James Robart from Seattle on Saturday was the latest in a slew of immigration-related legal setbacks for Trump.
Robart said that the restrictions could not apply to refugees with "bona fide relationship with a person or entity in the United States."
He demanded that American authorities resume processing and admitting so-called "follow-to-join" refugees, which would once again enable the spouse and unmarried children of a refugee already in the US to be admitted.
In October, the US announced it would resume accepting refugees after Trump’s 120-day ban expired, but some refugees, most of whom from Muslim majority countries, were still barred from coming into the US.
"Plaintiffs in both cases are refugees, who find themselves in dire circumstances, their family members who yearn to be reunited with them, and humanitarian organizations whose fundamental mission is to help these vulnerable refugees resettle in the United States," Robart wrote in his ruling.
"Plaintiffs in both cases present compelling circumstances of irreparable harm inflicted by the federal agencies' action at issue here."
This comes after a US appeals court ruled Friday that the third version of Trump’s proposed ban on citizens from Muslim-majority nations was beyond his legal authority and that it was a violation of federal law.
Earlier this month, the US Supreme Court allowed the Trump administration to fully enforce a travel ban targeting most citizens of Iran, Libya, Syria, Yemen, Somalia, Chad and North Korea, along with some groups of people from Venezuela.
Trump has said the restrictions are needed to tighten security and prevent terrorist attacks. Opponents say the ban violates the US Constitution because it discriminates against people based on their religion and ethnicity.
During the 2016 presidential race, Trump campaigned for "a total and complete shutdown" of Muslims entering the United States on the pretext of preventing terrorist attacks.
Posts
