As he faces legal challenges from undocumented immigrant youth, 16 states, and Washington, D.C. over his cowardly decision to end Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA), Donald Trump’s Muslim ban 2.0 suffered yet another court defeat from the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals:
A U.S. appeals court on Thursday rejected the Trump administration’s effort to temporarily bar most refugees from entering the country, ruling that those who have relationships with a resettlement agency should be exempt from an executive order banning refugees.
A three-judge 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals panel also ruled that grandparents, aunts, uncles and cousins of legal U.S. residents should be exempted from President Donald Trump’s order, which banned travelers from six Muslim-majority countries.
According to Vox’s Dara Lind, this is “the fourth time ... the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled against the Trump administration on the constitutionality” of the ban.
During a hearing last month, one judge openly questioned the Justice Department about the administration’s grandma ban. “How can the government take the position that a grandmother or grandfather or aunt or uncles of a child in the United States does not have a close familial relationship? Like what universe does that come from?”
Just as importantly, “the appeals court panel also cleared the way for a greater flow of refugees” who have already been vetted (a process that can take up to two years) and assigned to resettlement agencies.
The Trump administration had argued that “written assurances provided by resettlement agencies obligating them to provide services for specific refugees is not a bona fide relationship.”
The judges disagreed:
"Even if a resettlement agency does not have 'direct contact' with a refugee before arrival, this does not negate the finding that a relationship has formed. The agency still expends resources and arranges for individualized services based on the specific refugees that the agency has agreed to resettle," the 9th Circuit panel wrote. "Resettlement agencies will face concrete harms and burdens if refugees with formal assurances are not admitted."
Hawaii Attorney General Douglas Chin, who initially challenged the Muslim ban 2.0, said that the ruling “keeps families together. It gives vetted refugees a second chance. The Trump administration keeps taking actions with no legal basis. We will keep fighting back.”
It’s a victory, but as Lind notes, “for some refugees, it may be too late: Their medical or criminal background checks may have expired while they were waiting for the ban to be lifted.”
The ruling should go into effect within five days, according to Huffington Post. “The broader question of whether the revised travel ban discriminates against Muslims in violation of the U.S. Constitution will be considered by the U.S. Supreme Court in October.”
