WASHINGTON (Sputnik) — On Thursday, the US Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals in California ruled to uphold the suspension of Trump's executive order based on grounds that the travel ban failed to afford due process to those affected by the restrictions.
“Congress specifically put in a provision in the immigration statute that you can’t discriminate on the basis of nationality…This is exactly what the President is doing,” Baron said on Thursday. “If the federal government is going to make distinctions on people, there has to be some rational basis for it… part of what the equal protection clause is trying to prevent is arbitrary distinctions that are made for no reason whatsoever.”
In regards to immigrants legally in the United States with a visa or green card, US Congress enacted a provision in the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965 to avoid discrimination based on nationality, Baron stated. The equal protection clause, which took effect in 1868, provides that no state shall deny any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.
“If you look at those seven countries, no US citizen has been killed by somebody who is from one of those countries in a terrorist attack in the United States,” Baron claimed. “We don’t get what this urgent threat is that the president sees.”
Trump undermines the US judiciary by challenging and questioning it, which has deeply concerned advocates, Baron stated.
“I’m concerned about the way that the President is attacking on a personal level and almost taunting, bullying the judges,” Baron said.
On Friday, US District Judge James Robart ordered a temporary nationwide halt to the entry ban, siding with the states of Washington and Minnesota that challenged the US federal government over the immigration policy they considered discriminatory and unconstitutional.
Trump’s executive order, titled 'Protecting the Nation From Foreign Terrorist Entry into the United States,’ bars travelers from Iran, Iraq, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria and Yemen from entering the US for 90 days. Besides, all refugees are prohibited from entry for 120 days and Syrian asylum-seekers are barred indefinitely.
