Hawaii has become the first state in the United States to file a lawsuit to challenge US President Donald Trump's revised travel ban, which bars people from at least six Muslim-majority countries from entering the US.
Critics slam Donald Trump's revised travel ban as un-American
Reports state that the Hawaii state attorneys on Wednesday filed a lawsuit in Honolulu federal court against Trump's ban. The state had also sued Trump' first controversial travel ban, however, the lawsuit was temporarily put on hold while other cases against the travel ban were played out across the country.
Hawaii, on Tuesday night, had given a notice stating its intentions to file an amended lawsuit to cover the new plan, which comes into effect on March 16. The revised travel ban bars people from six Muslim-majority countries and temporarily shuts down the US refugee program. However, the ban does not apply to people who have already obtained visas to the US. The revised ban also bars new visas for people from those Muslim-majority countries.
The lawsuit filed by Hawaii said that Trump's revised travel order will harm the Muslim population of the state, along with its tourism and will also affect foreign students.
"Hawaii is special in that it has always been non-discriminatory in both its history and constitution. Twenty per cent of the people are foreign-born, 100,000 are non-citizens and 20 per cent of the labor force is foreign-born," Attorney General Doug Chin was quoted as saying by the Associated Press.
Hawaii filed a lawsuit after a Honolulu federal judge on Wednesday said that the state can move forward with the lawsuit. The hearing of the suit has been set for March 15, which is a day before Trump's new travel ban will come into effect.
Trump's earlier travel ban was temporarily stayed by a federal court in Seattle after Washington filed a lawsuit against the controversial ban.
The US Department of Justice declined to comment on the pending lawsuit.
