Trump Officials Scramble after Travel Ban Defeat
TEHRAN (Tasnim) – The US administration is weighing its options after an appeals court ruling against the president’s executive action on immigration, including the possibility of writing a new order.
US President Donald Trump on Friday said that he will make a new policy announcement as soon as next week in response to the court decision.
"We'll be doing something very rapidly having to do with additional security for our country," Trump said during a joint press conference with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe. "You’ll see something next week.”
A White House official said Friday that the administration is not currently planning to appeal to the Supreme Court, though it will keep up the broader battle against a lawsuit challenging the executive order.
But White House chief of staff Reince Priebus subsequently said that the administration is still considering an appeal to the Supreme Court, the Hill reported.
Administration officials are also reportedly considering scrapping the old executive order and writing a new one that can pass legal muster.
Work on a new travel ban began several days before Thursday's ruling, which saw the San Francisco-based US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit refuse to lift a temporary restraining order against the policy.
“We also have a lot of other options, including just filing a brand new order,” Trump told reporters Friday aboard Air Force One.
“We need speed for reasons of security, so it very well could be [a new order]," he said.
A federal judge in Seattle put the controversial policy on ice last week so the courts could consider a legal challenge from Washington and Minnesota. The appeals court late Thursday refused to lift that order.
Trump’s executive action, which barred people from seven majority Muslim countries from entering the US for 90 days, sparked intense backlash.
Chaos and confusion erupted at airports around the country as visa holders and legal permanent residents were detained and denied entry into the US Among those caught in the crosshairs was an Iraqi interpreter who worked for the US Army.
The order also temporarily halted refugee resettlement in the US, and banned Syrian refugees indefinitely.
The ban was reportedly written without the input of key Republican lawmakers and agency officials. The administration later clarified that the policy does not apply to green card holders, while the State Department reinstated thousands of visas that were revoked.
The states challenging the ban have argued that they have legal standing for a lawsuit because their residents were directly harmed by it, citing families that were separated, public university students and scholars who were stranded abroad, and other residents who were afraid to travel.
The three-judge panel at the appeals court agreed that the states have shown sufficient legal standing at this stage to bring the suit, even though the president has broad authority over national security matters.
