Federal Court Rules in Favor of Travel Ban Plaintiffs

Hawaiʻi federal district Judge Derrick K. Watson on Thursday afternoon issued an order in favor of Hawaiʻi in it’s challenge of the Trump travel ban.

Maui Now graphic.

The order essentially narrows the travel ban by expanding exemptions to include those with “close familial relationships” to include grandparents, grandchildren, uncles, aunts and other relatives in the US.

Attorney General Doug Chin said, “Family members have been separated and real people have suffered enough.” He said the courts have found that the Executive Order has no basis in stopping terrorism and called it “a pretext for illegal and unconstitutional discrimination.”

The state plans to continue its preparation for arguments before the US Supreme Court in October.

Homeland Security Advisory, Tom Bossert said this morning that he did not know if there was a formal administration response, but said the order as reported to him “seemed to be fairly broad” and something that would trouble him if it was as broad as reported.

“In terms of a connection with any group, any refugee organization, it might be read, if the early reports that I looked at were accurate, as something so expansive as to cover every refugee. And that certainly couldn’t be the interpretation the Supreme Court intended,” said Bossert, “So we’ll have to go back and have the attorneys read it, interpret it further, and decide whether this is another productive or unproductive step in this saga as we try to secure our country.”

Bossert said there’s a number of efforts ongoing to implement the President’s executive order, especially now that it’s been freed from legal constraint by the Supreme Court.

He said the vetting process is also being improved on a regular basis and offered no apology for the improvements saying, “it contributes not only to our security, but to the hopeful re-look in a comprehensive, strategic way at our immigration policy, not just our counter-terrorism policy.”