This is just the beginning of a long series of court battles with the Trump Administration.
In writing it’s 9th Circuit Appellate Order (or shall I say, REBUKE) the 9th Circuit did not take the easy way out and simply state Judge Robart did not abuse his discretion in halting the Travel Ban.
The 9th Circuit Court of Appeals unanimously authored a carefully considered and gravely important decision that has laid the legal foundation to challenge the current Administration’s barrage of executive orders designed to deny, restrict or revoke immigration benefits based on illegal, unconstitutional discriminatory premises under the veil of National Security and pursuant to the powers conveyed to the President by INA 212(f).
INA 212(f) is the broadly written law passed in 1952 that, when read by non-lawyers– as erudite as they may be– appears to give the President nearly unchecked power to “exclude aliens for national security purposes.”
In other words, the 9th Circuit has set the stage for judiciary review of far more than just the Muslim Ban.
For example, the 9th Circuit Order opens the door to challenge the much more distressing and potentially far reaching Sections 3(a) and 3(b) of the January 27, 2017 Executive Order in which the President may exclude all citizens of any country for which the Secretary of Homeland Security deems there are insufficient internal controls or standards regarding identity documents.
On Sunday, February 26, 2017 the Secretary of Homeland Security, in consultation with the Secretary of State and Director of National Intelligence, will provide to President Trump the following:
A list of countries that do not provide adequate information to determine that the individual seeking the immigration benefit
(1) is who the individual claims to be, AND
(2) is not a security or public-safety threat.
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Sections 3(a) and 3(b) are designed to ban far more individuals than just Muslims from 7 countries. These provisions are another thinly veiled, ham handed attempt by Trump to preclude virtually any man, woman or child from entering the U.S. as an asylee or refugee. You see, when people flee a war torn country, they do not generally have time to obtain holographic passports, certified police clearance certificates, and have their biometrics taken by the very government from which they are escaping.
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For example, most Vietnamese rescued by the American Military were given a birthday of January 1 by the U.S. Government because no one who escaped the War had official, high quality government identification and clearance documents required under Section 3(a) and 3(b) of Trump’s Executive Order of January 27, 2017.
It is anticipated that this list will include the following countries at minimum (I expect the list to be exponentially longer):
Iraq
Iran
Syria
Sudan
Libya
Somalia
Yemen
Lebanon
ARMM (Southern Region of Philippines controlled by Mindanao)
Venezuela
Colombia
Afghanistan
Pakistan
Mali
What this Administration fails to understand is Refugees do not want to leave home. No mother or father would ever put their infant’s life in mortal jeopardy just to live in what Trump Consigliere Steve Bannon calls America – a Welfare State.
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The Rule of Law will prevail in defeating further vainglorious attempts by Trump to exceed his Executive Authority.
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The rest of the world see firsthand how our system of Checks and Balances will always defeat the tyranny of one. The torchlight of the Greatest Democracy in the World will burn brighter than ever and our Great Nation will not only remain a place of refuge for those escaping tyranny and persecution but will serve as an inspiration to all oppressed peoples of non-Democratic nations.
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In this most bizarre turn of events, we may begin not only to solve our own immigration problems, but also effectuate the change required to begin resolving the current global humanitarian crisis of displaced people throughout the world.
