The State of Hawaii on Wednesday called for urgent court action against President Donald Trump's revised executive order restricting entry to the United States for refugees and travelers from six predominantly Muslim countries.
Arguing that the new ordinance violates the U.S. Constitution, the state asked a federal court in Hawaii to issue a temporary injunction suspending the ordinance, which should be enforced nationwide.
District Judge Derrick Watson ruled that the state could file a lawsuit against Trump's new decree.
It is the first lawsuit filed against the revised decree.
Watson said the state could review its initial lawsuit, which challenged Trump's original ordinance signed in January.
The hearing is set for March 15, one day before the new ban takes effect.
The US president on Monday unveiled an amended version of the decree, which temporarily bans refugees and citizens from six countries from entering the United States.
Iraq is out of the list, but Iran, Libya, Syria, Somalia, Sudan and Yemen remain, a situation which, according to the Trump administration, does not allow to confirm which countries have previously visited by travelers.
Residents and travelers with a valid visa will be allowed to enter the United States.
Syrians are no longer subject to the suspension of applications for refugee status indefinitely. They fall under the same ban of 120 days as the rest of the world, while the discrimination attributed to religious minorities is not included in the new decree.
Hawaii says its public universities may be hit by the decree because they will have difficulty attracting students and recruiting faculty. He also claims that the economy of the island state will be reduced by tourism. The court documents include reports that travel to the United States "fell sharply" following Trump's actions.
Ismail Elsich, an American citizen from Egypt who is an imam in the Muslim Union of Hawaii and whose mother-in-law lives in Syria, is also suing the state, according to the lawsuit documents.
"This second executive order addresses the same legal problems as the first," the state said in court documents filed Tuesday. The president's decree "subjected a section of the Hawaiian population, including Dr. Elsiech, his family and members of his mosque, to discrimination and degrading treatment."
The lawsuit alleges that Ellisch fears that his mother-in-law will not be able to enter the country under the new decree. "The family is being destroyed," he said.
Source: news.in.gr