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LOS ANGELES, March 29 (Xinhua) — A federal judge in the U.S. state of Hawaii on Wednesday extended a previous nationwide order prohibiting the implementation of President Trump’s revised travel ban while litigation continues.
U.S. District Judge Derek Watson initially issued an order suspending the travel ban in the form of a nationwide temporary restraining order on March 15, hours before the ban was to take effect.
Watson granted a motion Wednesday to convert his temporary restraining order to a preliminary injunction and extend it while the case proceeds, court documents show.
The move sets the stage for the Justice Department to appeal to the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals, which last month upheld a nationwide moratorium on Trump’s initial travel ban after a federal judge in Seattle ruled against it.
Hawaii became the first U.S. state to file a lawsuit challenging Trump’s revised travel ban. Judge Watson blocked provisions of Trump’s March 6 executive order that would have frozen the refugee program for 120 days and banned citizens of six Muslim-majority countries from entering the United States.
The revised travel ban will prohibit entry for 90 days for citizens of Iran, Libya, Syria, Somalia, Sudan and Yemen.
The new order, among other changes, reduces the number of countries on the list from seven to six. Iraq, a country initially included in the ban, has been removed from the list.
The state of Hawaii filed a lawsuit to stop the travel ban, arguing that the president’s policy unconstitutional and that the travel ban would harm the state’s economy by causing a decline in tourism and the ability to recruit international students.
Trump reacted to Watson’s March 15 restraining order by calling the ruling “unprecedented judicial overreach” and vowing to take the legal fight all the way to the Supreme Court.
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