The US Supreme Court on Monday issued an order allowing full enforcement of President Donald Trump’s revised travel ban to go into effect while legal challenges are argued in lower courts.
The revised order bans most travellers from Syria, Libya, Iran, Yemen, Chad, Somalia, North Korea and Venezuela. Six of the countries have majority Muslim populations.
Lower courts had issued restrictions on fully implementing the ban, saying Trump’s action discriminated based on nationality.
But lawyers for the Trump administration argued that those restrictions were “dangerously flawed.”
They argued that countries included in the ban had not cooperated with US demands for reliable identification of individuals and information sharing about people who could be criminal or security risks.
The travel ban listing Chad, Iran, Libya, North Korea, Syria, Venezuela and Yemen was announced in September and was supposed to take effect on October 18, but was stayed by lower courts. Somalia was not listed, but similar restrictions were placed on immigrant visas from that country.
The revised executive order is Trump’s third attempt to restrict the issuance of new visas to people from countries listed in the ban. It will last for 90 days and also halt issuances of new refugee admissions from around the world for 120 days. (NAN)