A Hawaii federal judge largely blocked the Trump administration’s third travel ban just hours before it was set to take effect against nationals from Chad, Iran, Libya, North Korea, Somalia, Syria, Venezuela and Yemen. Judge Watson blocked the ban for six of the eight countries subject to it and upheld it for North Korea and Venezuela. He upheld the temporary restraining order for the six countries and found that Trump’s executive order exceeded the scope of his authority, lacked sufficient findings that the entry of foreign nationals from the banned countries would be detrimental to the US and suffered from the previous defect – that it discriminated based on nationality.
The third travel ban, issued under the executive order “Enhancing Vetting Capabilities and Processes for Detecting Attempted Entry into the United States by Terrorists or Other Public Safety Threats,” was based on the administration’s review of information sharing practices among the US and nearly 200 foreign nations to determine whether nationals of each country pose a threat to the national security or public safety of the US. It found that the following eight countries had been deemed to have inadequate management protocols and information sharing practices: Chad, Iran, Libya, North Korea, Somalia, Syria, Venezuela and Yemen. It also determined that Iraq was not compliant but the order did not impose an outright ban on foreign nationals from Iraq but instead subjected them to additional screening measures. The foreign nationals from the other countries were subject to a diverse array of restrictions.