Immigration: Federal Judge Blocks New Trump Travel Ban

A federal judge on Tuesday blocked the Trump administration from implementing the latest version of a travel ban that had been scheduled to take effect tomorrow (Wednesday).

Judge Derrick K. Watson of the United States District Court of Hawaii said the ban is unconstitutional. The ban was to restrict certain nationals of Syria, Somalia, Chad, Libya, Iran, Yemen, North Korea and Venezuela from traveling to the United States.

This is the third revision of the travel ban, after the first two bans were also declared unconstitutional by federal judges.

In the 2016 presidential campaign, then-candidate Trump had vowed to implement a Muslim ban in order to keep the United States safe from terrorists.

After the first two orders were thrown out by the courts on grounds that they were meant to bar Muslims from the United States, the administration removed some majority-Muslim countries from the original list and added North Korea and Venezuela (which are not Muslim-majority countries) in a new ban introduced September 24th and scheduled to take effect on October 18th.

The Department of Justice is expected to appeal the ruling.