Washington state’s attorney general Bob Ferguson announced on Monday that he is suing President Donald Trump over his temporary ban on immigration from seven countries with majority-Muslim populations. This is the first state to announce a legal action against the Trump administration over one of its policies.
Trump’s order sparked large protests around the country over the weekend. In cities across the U.S., demonstrations protest Trump’s executive order that temporarily restricts entry to the U.S. from seven Muslim-majority countries and indefinitely bans Syrian refugees from crossing into the country.
People held signs with slogans including “America was built by refugees,” and “Muslim ban is un-American.”
The rally followed a night of big demonstrations at New York’s Kennedy Airport, where thousands of people spontaneously gathered to demand the release of detained travelers.
Attorney General Bob Ferguson was one of 16 state attorneys general said at a news conference that. “If successful it would have the effect of invalidating the president’s unlawful action nationwide.”
He also called Trump’s immigration action as “un-American and unlawful.”
The lawsuit against Mr. Trump was filed in federal court in Seattle.
Mr. Ferguson said. The state is also asking for a temporary restraining order against enforcement of the order.
“We are a country based on the rule of law, and in a courtroom, it is not the loudest voice that prevails, it’s the Constitution,” Mr. Ferguson said. “At the end of the day, either you’re abiding by the Constitution or you are not. And in our view, the President is not adhering to the Constitution when it comes to this executive action.”
Governor Inslee said the “inhumanity” of Mr. Trump’s order is obvious.
“This is un-American, it is wrong, and it will not stand,” Governor Inslee said. “The clear intent of this executive order is to discriminate against one faith amongst all God’s children.”
Mr. Ferguson said he has been in contact with other attorneys general but At This Point Washington State was acting on its own regarding the legal action.
Trump’s order is illegal. More than 50 years ago, Congress outlawed such discrimination against immigrants based on national origin. The Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965 banned all discrimination against immigrants on the basis of national origin, replacing the old prejudicial system and giving each country an equal shot at the quotas. In signing the new law, President Lyndon B. Johnson said that “the harsh injustice” of the national-origins quota system had been “abolished.” But Trump asserts that he still has the power to discriminate.