By Bill Parry
After President Donald Trump signed the new executive order on immigration Monday, Camille Mackler headed back to Terminal 4 at JFK International Airport to do a dry run with her group of 20 volunteer attorneys.
Mackler, the legal initiatives director at the New York Immigration Coalition, became the coordinator of dozens of lawyers who raced to JFK to volunteer their services to travelers who were detained in late January during the chaotic weekend that followed the first executive order.
The new version exempts Iraq from the travel ban reducing the number of Muslim-majority countries affected to six from which travel is temporarily blocked. It also halts all refugee admission to the United States for four months. The new policy does not affect legal permanent residents or people holding a valid visa when it was signed.
To avoid the chaos that occurred in January, the order does not go into effect until Thursday, March 16.
“I don’t think it will be as chaotic as the last time,” Mackler said. “Based on how it is written, I think most of the chaos will be abroad at the embassies, but we’ll be ready to ramp up our advocacy operations. Ten days is better that two hours’ notice, but it still takes time to develop the necessary protocols here on the ground.”
The Trump administration moved Tuesday to dismiss the 9th Circuit appeal of the original travel ban while Senate Democrats introduced a bill to block the revised order by withholding funding to enforce it.
The state of Hawaii filed the first legal challenge Wednesday to the revised executive order calling it unconstitutional. A federal judge scheduled arguments for March 15.
Meanwhile, Queens Democrats reacted to Trump’s newest iteration of his Muslim and refugee ban.
“The new executive order is anything but. This repackaging of the original executive order is still clearly an unconstitutional and hateful action meant to ban Muslims and refugees from coming to our shores,” U.S. Rep. Carolyn Maloney (D-Astoria) said. “Such hateful acts not only undermine our values and democracy but also threaten American security at home and abroad. I will continue to fight this ban. Our country is one of immigrants, and that diversity makes our nation strong. We cannot be silent when American values are under assault.”
State Sen. Michael Gianaris (D-Astoria), who introduced legislation to prohibit the Port Authority from using any resources in support of Trump’s original executive order in January, repeated his opposition.
“Donald Trump’s new travel ban is just as un-American and illegal as his first and the issuance of his divisive Executive Order does significant damage to our democracy and the values we hold dear,” Gianaris said. “As I first proposed weeks ago, the Port Authority should not participate in enforcing this ban nor lend Port Authority resources for its implementation. The enactment of my legislation prohibiting such involvement is crucial to preserving our way of life and keeping immigrant families together.”
State Assemblyman Francisco Moya (D-Jackson Heights) called the tweaked travel ban fundamentally flawed, xenophobic and misguided “premised on ghost stories of incoming refugees and immigrants committing atrocities, despite all evidence to the contrary.” He said the multi-agency vetting process is clearly working already.
“There will be fallout for Trump’s actions, and seeing it unfold is like watching a train wreck in slow motion,” Moya said. “Regardless of whether you agree that this executive order is against the very values that have defined our great nation, you cannot deny that it does endanger Americans by fueling a narrative ISIS feeds on. Instead of providing the content ISIS will use to recruit for years to come, instead of hurting our own economy by stemming the flow of travelers, the president should have just cut his political losses and abandoned this crusade. Unfortunately, that is not the temperament Donald Trump is known for.”
Reach reporter Bill Parry by e-mail at bparr
