Legal Challenges to Travel Ban 3.0
Americans United for Separation of Church and State, Muslim Advocates and Covington & Burling LLP, in collaboration with the National Iranian American Council (NIAC) and the Brennan Center for Justice at NYU, announced two lawsuits against the Trump administration’s latest efforts to unlawfully block the entry of Muslims into the United States and to carry out President Trump’s long-promised Muslim ban.
About the Suits:
Iranian Alliances Across Borders v. Trump
Iranian Alliances Across Borders v. Trump is the first major lawsuit to be filed against the latest iteration of the Muslim ban. It was filed in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Maryland on behalf of the Iranian Alliances Across Borders (IAAB) and six individual plaintiffs, all of whom are U.S. citizens or lawful permanent residents with Iranian relatives who will be blocked from coming to the United States when the latest Muslim ban goes fully into effect on Oct. 18.
This legal action challenges President Trump’s Sept. 24, 2017, Presidential Proclamation – which imposes broad restrictions on entry into the United States for nationals of several predominantly Muslim countries – as a violation of the U.S. Constitution and other federal laws.
Click here to read the complaint.
Brennan Center for Justice v. U.S. Department of State
Brennan Center for Justice v. U.S. Department of State was filed in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York to compel the Trump Administration to release critically important details on how it came to choose which countries would be covered by Muslim Ban 3.0.
Over the summer, federal agencies purportedly conducted a worldwide review of visa issuance and data collection processes, the results of which determined which countries were included on the final list of banned countries in President Trump’s Sept. 24 proclamation. The process and results of that review have been completely hidden from public view, yet they are being used to determine the fate of millions of individuals across the world.
In July, a number of civil rights organizations, including the Brennan Center for Justice, Americans United and Muslim Advocates, filed a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request on various “extreme vetting” measures enacted by the administration, including information regarding the worldwide review process. The administration has yet to comply with any part of that request, even though the statutory deadline for a response has long since passed. This litigation seeks immediate disclosure of just one element of this multi-part request: the report on the basis of which the Muslim Ban 3.0 countries were selected.
Click here to read the complaint.
Click here to read the original FOIA.
Click here to read the Brennan Center’s report on Extreme Vetting and the Muslim Ban.
KJ