Hawaii has become the first state to challenge to stop President Donald Trump’s revised travel ban. Attorneys for the state filed the lawsuit on Thursday in federal court in Honolulu. The state had previously sued over Trump’s initial travel ban, but that lawsuit was put on hold while other cases played out across the country.
Hawaii gave notice on Wednesday night that it intended to file an amended lawsuit to cover the new ban, which plans to goes into effect from March 16.
The revised executive order bars new visas for people from six predominantly Muslim countries and temporarily shuts down the US refugee programme. It doesn’t apply to travelers who already have visas.
Hawaii’s lawsuit says the order will harm Hawaii’s Muslim population, tourism and foreign students.“Hawaii is special in that it has always been non-discriminatory in both its history and constitution,” said Attorney General Douglas Chin, whose office has also asked for a temporary restraining order against the ban. “Twenty percent of the people are foreign-born, 1,00,000 are non-citizens and 20 per cent of the labour force is foreign-born.”
