“Trump wins” on travel ban/refugee
restrictions, or does he? by Ann Corcoran, 6/26/17
On the surface it
might appear that the Trump Administration has won an important victory in the
Supreme Court which ruled just a few hours ago on the so-called “travel ban”
Executive Order, but in my view the Court has created an enormous bureaucratic
mess, not to mention having re-written Refugee law! What were they thinking???
I know, I know, they will
decide the case on the merits after hearing it next fall (and this decision
does show where they are leaning), but from now until then there will be
nothing but chaos and controversy relating to travel from the 6 countries and
regarding the refugee admissions CEILING. Remember
readers, I am not a legal beagle, but the minute I heard some of the convoluted
balancing of equities argument I thought my head would explode!
The gist of the
decision is that Trump (the President) can halt immigration from the six
(although incomplete list) of terror-producing countries unless the wannabe
entrant (for any purpose) “can credibly claim a bona fide relationship with a
person or entity in the United States.”
So, I guess that
means the court has decided in advance who the potential terrorists are and
that they
can’t possibly be someone who has a relative here already or is coming to
college at the University of Hawaii (or any college) or connected to any
“entity” (a VOLAG perhaps!).
Of greater interest to
me is that, although Trump can have his refugee admissions ceiling of 50,000
(remember CEILING is not a target), but the ceiling can be surpassed (says the majority opinion) in the remaining months of this fiscal
year (up to September 30th) if the wannabe refugees have relatives here
(what if 10,000, 20,000 and so forth have relatives here!).
Can you see the
potential for fraud as all over the world, migrants wishing to get to America
are scrambling to have relatives or a bona fide entity with which to associate
themselves.
So, in effect the
Supreme Court (led by Chief Justice Roberts) has just rewritten the Refugee Act of 1980!
The Act allows the
President to exceed his designated ceiling (and here they agree it is 50,000!) only by
making a case for an emergency and consulting with Congress. Well, forget
that! Looks like the Supreme Court is now determining the number of refugees to
be admitted to America.
(I concede real lawyers might have a
different interpretation, but reading the Court’s decision today one wonders if
they read the Refugee Act!).
Here in the dissent
written by Thomas, Alito and Gorsuch you can clearly see the bureaucratic and
legal mess the Court has thrown to a State Department not firmly in the White
House’s control, not to mention the parade of court cases the three dissenting
Justices envision. (See original article)
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