It’s back to the drawing board for US President Donald Trump, after his revised travel ban was blocked mere hours before it was scheduled to launch.
Not one, but two US Federal Judges (in Hawaii and Maryland) put a hold on the new executive order, saying it discriminates against followers of Islam.
According to Hawaii’s District Judge Derrick Watson, “any reasonable, objective observer would conclude” that the purpose of the revised ban was to target Muslims by suspending their entry in the United States.
“The illogic of the Government’s contentions is palpable.”
Hawaii District Judge Derrick Watson
“The notion that one can demonstrate animus toward any group of people only by targeting all of them at once is fundamentally flawed.”
Image: Donald Trump/Twitter
The US President responded by describing it as a “terrible ruling” that makes the United States “look weak”.
He told supporters at a rally in Tennessee that he plans to fight the decision by “taking it as far as it needs to go”, even up to the Supreme Court.
“We are going to win.”
President Donald Trump
This is the second attempt from Donald Trump to restrict travellers and refugees from Muslim-majority countries from entering the United States.
The first Executive Order was implemented in January with little warning and caused mass travel disruptions among people from Iraq, Iran, Syria, Sudan, Yemen, Libya and Somalia.
Last week, he unveiled an updated version of the ban, which removed Iraq from the list, gave people time to come to terms with the new conditions and excluded people from the Muslim-majority countries who have been living and working in the US.