What’s Happening with Trump’s Immigration Ban?
Trumps immigration ban was the big story of his first week in office. I spent some time today trying to sort out what’s happened since and where things stand.
The short answer is this: the courts have blocked the executive order from being enforced. Travel from the seven countries affected by the order has resumed. Here’s how it happened:
On January 27th, Trump issues an executive order halting immigration and travel from seven Muslim-majority nations, citing national security concerns. In the days following the order, a number of states file lawsuits against the federal government seeking to block the order. The relevant lawsuit turns out to be one filed by Washington state that cites “irreparable harm” not just to individuals affected by the order, but to the state itself. The primary example of harm the state uses in its arguments is harm to its public universities, as some students and faculty members might be affected by the ban and thereby prevented from doing research.
On February 4th, a federal judge grants an injunction against the order, which immediately stops federal agencies from enforcing it. The Trump administration appeals the ruling to the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, which is one step below the Supreme Court. On February 9th, Ninth Circuit upholds the ruling, which means that the block of the immigration remains in place.
There are a couple of things worth noting. First, the courts haven’t ruled directly on the order itself. They’ve just agreed with Washington State’s argument that the order is causing harm and should be put on hold until a full legal review can take place. I’m not entirely sure what that process looks like, but I expect it will take some time. Second, the Trump administration will probably appeal this ruling to the Supreme Court. That process will also take some time, and the administration appears to be weighing other options in the meantime.
The immigration ban, then, is on hold. We’ll have to wait and see what comes next from both the courts and the administration.
If you’d like to read more, here are a things I found helpful:
42 of 100
