President Trump signed a new executive order travel ban today that will temporarily prevent immigration from six Muslim countries. Immigration and travel from Iraq, which was banned under the original order in January, will be allowed under this new iteration.
The six countries cited in the ban are Syria, Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan and Yemen. Citizens from these countries will not be able to obtain visas for at least 90 days starting on March 16th.
In addition to removing Iraq, this version of the ban no longer calls for the indefinite ban of Syrian refugees and does not contain language that indicates refugees who are religious minorities in these regions will receive preferential treatment. This was an aspect of the previous ban that many believed would give Christians an overwhelming advantage over their fellow Muslim citizens.
Despite some of these changes, Charlie Sennott, WGBH news analyst and the founder of the GroundTruth Project, believes this new ban, like the original, could still be deemed as unconstitutional by the 9th District Court of Appeals.
“you have literally dozens of court cases unfolding right now that say that the ban as it was originally proposed was unconstitutional. One of the questions is, do the courts determine this to be any different than the one that was introduced before,” said Sennott on Boston Public Radio Monday.
“They don’t help their case, saying this is a new one and therefore we can get rid of all those lawsuits because this one is really going to pass muster constitutionally. They don’t want to admit any defeat or that they got under any pressure to have to change it, yet they have changed it,” he continued.
Sennott says that the insistence on this ban is somewhat baffling and its presence only helps to emphasize the cracks in Trump’s administration. “If you your own experts tell you, this is not going to really help. You wonder why are they so obsessed with putting this thing forward,” he said.
“What a moment we are in in the chaos of an administration that appears to be flailing, that is really worrisome right now.”
