17 state AGs denounce Trump immigration order News
17 state AGs denounce Trump immigration order

[JURIST] The attorneys general of 16 states, plus the District of Columbia, issued a joint statement [text] on Sunday calling US President Donald Trump’s [official profile] executive order [text] on immigration “un-American.” The attorneys general pledged to “work together to ensure the federal government obeys the Constitution, respects our history as a nation of immigrants, and does not unlawfully target anyone because of their national origin or faith.” The attorneys general from California, Connecticut, District of Columbia, Hawaii, Illinois, Iowa, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Mexico, New York, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Vermont, Virginia and Washington originally signed [Reuters report] the statement. Rhode Island Attorney General Peter Kilmartin [official website] showed support for the statement via Twitter and added his name. As of yet, no attorneys general have stated they will file a lawsuit challenging the order. They say they will work to minimize suffering until the executive order is struck down by the judiciary.

On Friday Trump issued an executive order restricting access to the US for refugees and visa holders from Iraq, Syria, Iran, Sudan, Libya, Somalia and Yemen. The order also indefinitely suspends the entry into the US of Syrian refugees. The order further suspended admission of refugees from any country for 120 days while the administration is reviewing the visa program and limited the number of possible refugees for 2017 to 50,000. Over the weekend, several federal judges blocked [JURIST report] parts of the executive order.