New travel ban likely to skirt legal hurdles

Mindful of the chaos and confusion in the wake of Trump’s last month executive order barring entry from seven Muslim majority countries and halting refugee program, airport officials and civil rights lawyers across the US are getting ready for Trump’s new travel ban. Trump said that his executive order named seven countries because they had already been deemed a security concern by the Obama administration.
Trump’s January executive order sparked immediate confusion, panic and outrage as travellers were detained in US airports before being sent back overseas and others were barred from boarding flights at foreign airports. Initially, even US green card holders were blocked. Later the legal residents were granted special permission to come into the country. The State Department provisionally revoked roughly 60,000 valid visas in all.
But a report by Homeland Security Department’s intelligence arm didn’t find ample evidence that citizens of the seven Muslim-majority countries pose a terror threat to the US. Trump, in his first address to Congress on Tuesday night, said his administration was taking strong measures to protect United States from terrorism and was working on improved vetting procedures. The Republican billionaire said he would take new steps to keep people safe and to keep out those who would do any harm to US.
Last month, Trump’s travel ban ran into legal hurdles and courts put the order on hold. Attorneys challenged Trump order in court and the lawsuit resulted in a federal judge temporarily blocking the government from enforcing the travel ban, a decision unanimously upheld by a panel of the 9th US Circuit Court of Appeals.
The new travel ban is expected anytime. According to the latest draft, the new order would target people from six of the original seven predominantly Muslim countries. It does not include Iraq. Travellers who already have visas to come to the US are also exempted. Those bans are effective for 90 days.
Baghdad had reacted fiercely after executive order banned Iraqis from entering US. Iraqi Prime Minister Haider Al-Abadi refuted the ban and warned reciprocal measures. Many Iraqi lawmakers urged the government to ban Americans from Iraq in response, despite the potential effects that might have on the anti-IS fight. US Defense Secretary Jim Mattis met Al-Abadi in Baghdad and stressed over the importance of the US-Iraqi partnership.
It is understood that the decision followed pressure from the Pentagon and State Department, which had urged the White House to reconsider Iraq’s inclusion on the list given its key role in fighting the IS group.
Since last month’s ban, a section of the international arrivals area at Dulles International Airport outside the nation’s capital has been transformed into a virtual law firm, with legal volunteers enquiring if anybody was detained. Similar efforts are underway at other airports, including Seattle-Tacoma International. Airports must be as ready as possible.
It is to be seen whether a new order would cure all the constitutional problems of the original, including the claim that it was motivated by anti-Muslim discrimination. To beat the religious discrimination argument, the government may also have to overcome former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani’s claim that Trump had asked him how to legally pull off a Muslim ban. It’s hard to imagine a bulletproof new order that can address the legal hurdles faced by the first executive order.