- The leader of the Democrats in the US Senate, Chuck Schumer, said he would bring legislation on Monday evening seeking to end the ban.
Reuters/Washington
Pressure mounted on US President Donald Trump on Monday over his order banning travel from seven Muslim nations, as the state of Washington announced a legal challenge and former president Barack Obama took a swipe at his successor.The leader of the Democrats in the US Senate, Chuck Schumer, said he would bring legislation on Monday evening seeking to end the ban, although his effort stood little chance of being passed by the Republican-led Congress.
British Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson joined a chorus of concern expressed by US allies, ranging from Iraq to Germany, at Trump's executive order to forbid entry into America by refugees and people from some predominantly Muslim countries.
Washington will be the first state to take on the executive order, announcing an effort to sue in federal court."It is an insult and a danger to all of the people of the state of Washington, of all faiths," Governor Jay Inslee, a Democrat, told reporters. He said it was important for the Trump administration to face law-suits from the state itself, and not just cases filed by people who have been impacted by the order.Technology companies Amazon.com Inc and Expedia Inc, both of which are based in Washington, will support the suit, state Attorney General Bob Ferguson said.Republican Trump's directive on Friday put a 120-day hold on allowing refugees into the country, an indefinite ban on refugees from Syria and a 90-day bar on citizens from Iran, Iraq, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria and Yemen.
The president argues that his action will protect America from terror attacks but critics complain that it unfairly singles out Muslims, violates US law and the Constitution, and defiles America's historic reputation as a welcoming place for immigrants. Chaos broke out over the weekend as border and customs officials struggled to put the order into prac-tice amid loud protests at major US airports.
Federal judges blocked deportation of those detained un-Trump in legal and political bindder the order. Several other state attorneys general, including those from California and New York, have said they are considering whether to file their own lawsuits.US stocks slipped on Monday, and were on track to post their largest drop in more than three months as investors took the curb on immi-gration as a reminder that not all the new president's policies would be market-friendly.
On Twitter, Trump appeared to blame the airport confusion on protesters as well as on Schumer, who teared up over the weekend while discussing the ban, and even a computer system failure at Delta Air Lines Inc late on Sunday.
"Only 109 people out of 325,000 were detained and held for questioning. Big problems at airports were caused by Delta computer outage ... protesters and the tears of Senator Schumer. Secretary Kelly said that all is go-ing well with very few problems. MAKE AMERICA SAFE AGAIN!" he tweeted.
Schumer, a New York Democrat, urged repealing the order."We should repeal this, and then we should sit down in a careful, thoughtful way to figure out ways we need to tighten up things against terrorism," he told NBC News, noting that some Republican lawmakers also had spoken out against Trump's action.
But even if the Republican lead-ership in the Senate allowed a vote on Monday to repeal the order as Schumer wants, the Democrats would need all of their members plus at least three Republicans to back him for the measure to pass.
And a proposed repeal of the ban would face even stronger resistance in the House if it passed the Senate. Trump rejected criticism the order amounted to a Muslim ban, saying more than 40 Muslim countries were not affected.Britain's Johnson described the order as "highly controversial."
"This is, of course, a highly controversial policy, which has caused unease and, I repeat, this is not an approach that this government would take," Johnson told parliament.
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