The US government began to roll back Donald Trump’s contentious visa bans targeting majority-Muslim countries Saturday, after a stinging legal defeat for the new president.
Government agencies and US airlines said they would again recognize visas from seven majority Muslim nations and cease enforcing the Trump’s order, after a Washington State judge put a block pending legal review.
The high profile setback provoked Trump to fire off an attack on the judge, almost unprecedented for sitting president.
“The opinion of this so-called judge, which essentially takes law-enforcement away from our country, is ridiculous and will be overturned!” Trump tweeted early Saturday from his Mar-a-Lago Florid retreat, where he is on a three night getaway.
US District Judge James Robart of Washington State — an appointee of Republican president George W. Bush — issued a nationwide order blocking Trump’s bans late Friday. By early Saturday, the US government began implementing the judge’s order.
The State Department told visa holders from Iran, Iraq, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria and Yemen that they are again allowed to travel as long as the documents had not been “physically cancelled.”
The department early said up to 60,000 people had their visas revoked as a result of Trump’s order, although a Justice Department attorney put the number at closer to 100,000.
The Department of Homeland Security — which runs border agencies — also said it would cease implementing the order.
The travel restrictions went into effect a week ago, wreaking havoc at airports across America and leaving travelers trying to reach the United States in limbo.
The political backlash for Trump has been equally severe, with the order fueling numerous mass protests and internal White House infighting.
Anti-Trump protests continued for a third consecutive weekend Saturday, with demonstrations springing up from London to US cities.
Trump was forced to defend a botched rollout of the plan — which called his government’s competence into question — and had to fire the government’s top lawyer for refusing to defend the order in court.
His approval rating has sunk to the lowest level on record for any new president.
His latest rhetorical outburst is only likely to stoke the controversy.
Presidents from Thomas Jefferson to Barack Obama have criticized court rulings, but have rarely, if ever, criticized individual judges.
“I can’t think of anything like it in the past century and a half at least,” constitutional scholar and Harvard Law professor Laurence Tribe told AFP.
“It’s not exactly contempt of court, but it certainly is contemptuous,” said Tribe, who taught two sitting Supreme Court justices as well as president Obama — whom he later advised.
“It conveys a lack of respect for the independent judiciary that bodes ill for the country’s future as long as Trump occupies the presidency,” Tribe said.
Democrats in Congress were swift in their condemnation of Trump’s remarks, while Republicans notably did not rush to his defense.
“This ‘so-called’ judge was nominated by a ‘so-called’ President & was confirmed by the ‘so-called’ Senate. Read the ‘so-called’ Constitution,” tweeted California democrat, Congressman Adam Schiff.
Source: AFP
