Federal Judge in Maryland Halts Trump's New Immigration Order

A federal judge in Maryland has halted parts of Donald Trump's third immigration order, which imposes extensive restrictions on the entry of foreign nationals into the United States, allowing for a legal challenge from officials of the International Refugee Assistance Project to be heard in court. Theodore Chuang, a federal judge in Maryland, stated in his ruling issued on Tuesday, 'The plaintiffs have presented evidence and arguments in their objection that are likely to be persuasive to the court.' According to National Public Radio, this federal judge's decision in Maryland will undermine Donald Trump's administration's efforts to ban the entry of nationals from several Muslim countries and North Korea into the U.S. Judge Theodore Chuang further stated in another part of his ruling, 'If the enforcement of this order is not halted, the plaintiffs will suffer irreparable harm, and creating a balance between governmental orders and public interests dictates that this objection be accepted by the court.' This ruling was issued just one day before the official implementation of Trump's third immigration order. On Tuesday, a federal judge in Hawaii also issued a similar order to halt Trump's immigration order. In both rulings, the judges in Maryland and Hawaii will stop the enforcement of Trump's recent immigration order concerning nationals from Muslim countries that are subject to the ban, but provisions of this order regarding nationals from North Korea and Venezuela will be allowed to proceed. The ruling issued by the state judge in Maryland also allows the president's immigration order regarding applicants for entry into the U.S. 'who cannot establish their connection to individuals or entities based in the U.S.' to continue to be enforced. These phrases are exactly the legal description that the U.S. Supreme Court used in June when issuing its ruling affirming parts of the previous presidential immigration order. In this context, the suspension of Trump's third immigration order; the Department of Justice is requesting a review. The first lawsuit against Trump's new immigration order has gone to court. There has been an 18% decrease in visas issued by the U.S. for nationals from Iran and five other Muslim countries. The U.S. Supreme Court has postponed the session to review Trump's previous immigration order. Experts say that legal challenges against Trump's new immigration order are more difficult.