Hawaii is expected to take legal action on Wednesday against President Trump’s revised executive order on immigration from six countries in the Middle East and North Africa.
State attorneys filed papers on Tuesday stating their intentions to file a motion on Wednesday seeking a restraining order against Trump’s actions, which are set to be put into effect on March 16. The lawsuit would be the first since Trump updated the order on Monday.
“To be sure, the new executive order covers fewer people than the old one,” Neal Katyal, one of Hawaii’s attorneys, told CNN. But in his view, the new travel ban still “suffers from the same constitutional and statutory defects.”
Earlier Monday, Trump signed a new order that excludes Iraqi citizens, legal permanent residents and existing visa holders from a list of six countries in the Middle East and North Africa whose residents cannot enter the U.S. for 90 days.
The state is asking for its request to be heard before the March 16 implementation date.
Previously, Washington state and a handful of states sued the administration for the president’s executive order to temporarily suspend immigration from Somalia, Iran, Iraq, Sudan, Syria, Libya and Yemen.
In February, Seattle-based U.S. District Judge James Robart ruled in favor of a lawsuit by Washington State Attorney General Bob Ferguson. The restraining order was granted on a national level and took effect immediately, causing the Trump administration to rewrite the order.
The 9th Circuit Court of Appeals later ruled in favor of Washington, forcing the White House to go back to the drawing board on its immigration plan.
