Trump’s Anti-Immigrant Remarks Show Unconstitutional Intent to Discriminate
Attorney General Jeff Sessions has announced the Department of Justice will request Supreme Court review of the Trump administration’s executive order banning travel by immigrants from six majority-Muslim nations. Earlier Thursday the 4th Circuit Court of Appeals upheld a lower court’s ruling that blocked enforcement of the ban.
As he has previously claimed, Sessions’ statement says that Trump is “well within his lawful authority to keep the nation safe.”Â
But as several courts have ruled, Trump’s intent is a religious ban, a ban on Muslims, and that makes it unconstitutional. Courts have examined and cited then-candidate Trump’s remarks. Earlier this month during a White House press briefing Trump’s press release calling for a ban on Muslims was the subject of discussion, as it was still on Trump’s campaign website. Literally an hour later it was removed, just before oral arguments at the 4th Circuit began.
“Donald J. Trump is calling for a total and complete shutdown of Muslims entering the United States until our country’s representatives can figure out what is going on,” the official press release, a copy preserved by the Internet Archive, reads. During his press conference then candidate-Trump changed the language to say, “until our country’s representatives can figure out what the hell is going on.”In his statement today, Attorney General Sessions called the 4th Circuit Court’s ruling “divided,” but it should be noted the ruling was 10-3.
It should also be noted that Trump’s Muslim travel ban, which he first signed January 27, was to be for 90 days, to allow the administration to determine better how to vet immigrants. The administration argued it was not supposed to be permanent.
It’s now been more than 90 days, so why is the ban still needed?
The real question is, what has the administration done to improve its vetting procedures?
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Image by Gage Skidmore via Flickr and a CC license