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Virginia AG files brief supporting Hawaii’s legal challenge to Trump’s new immigration order

Posted at 4:34 PM, Mar 14, 2017
and last updated 2017-03-14 16:36:50-04

(Photo by Zach Gibson/Getty Images)

RICHMOND, Va. – Virginia Attorney General Mark Herring has filed a brief supporting Hawaii’s stance on President Trump’s revised immigration order.

Hawaii previously issued the first legal challenge to President Trump’s revised order.

Since then six other states have sued Trump over his travel ban.

Herring joined 13 other state attorneys general in filing an amicus brief in the District Court for Hawaii in support of the State of Hawaii’s request for a temporary restraining order preventing the enforcement of the revised ban, his office announced Tuesday.

The attorneys general argue the revised travel ban retains unconstitutional components of the original order, including a broad ban on entry to the country by nationals of several predominantly Muslim countries and a complete suspension of the refugee program.

In the brief filed on Monday, Herring and his colleagues highlight the harms the initial Executive Order caused to the states’ residents, institutions and businesses, and that the revised version would continue to cause.

Specifically, the states argue that the order harmed state colleges and universities, creating staffing gaps, precluding students’ attendance, and imposing additional costs and administrative burdens; has disrupted staffing and research at state medical institutions; and has immediately reduced tax revenues and is broadly harming the states’ economies, Herring’s office said.

A federal judge in Hawaii agreed to hear the legal challenge to Trump’s new travel ban on March 15 — just before it is slated to go into effect.