Supreme Court Keeps Trump’s Travel Ban in Effect Until Further Notice

The Supreme Court has granted the Trump administration a reprieve to keep the strict travel ban restrictions in place for refugees, blocking an appellate court ruling that deemed refugees who have been already working with nonprofit resettlement agencies would still be admitted into the U.S.  

The Supreme Court is expected to take up the issue and make a final ruling on the legality of the travel ban on October 10. 

Extended family members, including grandparents, uncles, aunts, nieces, nephews and cousins of people already in the U.S. were also granted exemption from the travel ban by the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. 

This part of the ruling, which isn’t being challenged by the Justice Department, will go into effect Tuesday.

24,000 refugees are currently in the process of being admitted into the U.S. and they will be able to enter due to “assurances” from resettlement agencies.  

“U.S. District Court Judge Derrick Watson agreed with the State of Hawaii and refugee advocates that the assignment to an American agency was a sufficient connection to a U.S. entity to qualify for the temporary travel-ban reprieve the Supreme Court ordered in June when it agreed to decide the broader legality of the travel ban,” writes Politico.

However, the Justice Department argues that the “refugee-resettlement agencies’ assurance agreements are with the federal government and do not establish any relationship ‘with a particular person seeking to enter the country as a refugee.’”

Therefore, these “assurances” are not valid. 

President Donald Trump has received tremendous pushback on his 90-day travel ban. The original ban halted admissions from the seven countries, including Iran, Iraq, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syrian and Yemen. The ban also halted the entry of refugees.  

In February of this year, a report proved why a travel ban is in the best interest of U.S. citizens. The center for Immigration reported that 72 of convicted terrorists came from these Muslin nations and 17 of them came through the refugee program.

Local courts like in Hawaii and Maryland ruled against the travel ban claiming it discriminates based on nationality.

Back in March, Trump said that they won’t be backing down.

“We are going to take our case as far as it needs to go, including all the way up to the Supreme Court. We are going to win. We are going to keep our citizens safe — and, regardless, we are going to keep our citizens safe,” said Trump.

The latest move by the Justice Department proves that the legal battle is far from over. The DOJ argues that the recent ruling defeats the purpose of the refugee clause.  

“The Ninth Circuit’s decision renders the June 26 stay functionally inoperative,” said Jeff Wall, acting solicitor general in the filing Monday. “It makes no sense to exempt from…. the Order the roughly 24,000 refugees for whom assurances exist, based on the happenstance that they had reached a later stage of the administrative process in which the government routinely obtains assurances.’

Wall also said the 9th Circuit’s ruling will cause “precisely the type of uncertainty and confusion that the government has worked diligently to avoid.”

“The global refugee halt in Trump’s revised executive order runs out in late October, about two weeks after the scheduled oral arguments at the high court. A ruling in the president’s favor could empower him to reinstate or extend the travel ban orders or to implement something similar on a permanent basis,” writes Politico.

Author’s note: Since the majority of the Supreme Court judges are conservative now, Trump has won this round and will probably win the overall ruling.

Editor’s note: It is exceedingly embarrassing for a lower court to be overturned by the Supreme Court, especially when the case is as high profile as this one. The overturn will show the political bias of the ninth circuit and give them pause before they attempt a political ruling again.