Judge Grants WA Restraining Order Halting Trump Immigration Order

According to information released by the Washington State Attorney General's office, a Federal judge has issued a temporary injunction halting the enforcement of President Trump's Executive Order on immigration, the injunction reportedly affects it nationwide.

Trump had earlier placed a temporary halt on VISA processing, immigration and refugee programs between 90 and 120 days until the screening and security programs in these efforts could be improved and overhauled.

However, citing parts of the 1965 Immigration and Naturalization law, Ferguson argued for an immediate stop to the program. His reasons for doing so are largely because Seattle is a self-proclaimed sanctuary city, with policies that hinder ICE and federal efforts to pursue illegal immigrants. The city stood to lose Federal funding under new orders from Trump. A statement from Ferguson's office read in part:

"SEATTLE — A federal judge in Seattle today granted Attorney General Bob Ferguson’s request to immediately halt implementation of President Donald Trump’s Executive Order on immigration nationwide.

The Temporary Restraining Order will remain in place until U.S. District Court Senior Judge James L. Robart considers the Attorney General’s lawsuit challenging key provisions of the President’s order as illegal and unconstitutional. If Ferguson prevails, the Executive Order would be permanently invalidated nationwide.

To obtain the Temporary Restraining Order, the state needed to prove that its underlying lawsuit was likely to succeed, that irreparable harm was likely to occur without the restraining order, and that halting the President’s order immediately is in the public interest. The state also needed to establish that the potential injury to Washington residents caused by leaving the President’s order in place outweighs any potential damage from halting it."

Washington state was the first to seek action to try to overturn or block the Order. Critics say Ferguson has been active in this area, as well as seeking to ban what he believes are semi-automatic weapons because he is setting up for a political career for office after the AG job. He has also pushed for raising the state tobacco age to 21, an area where critics say he's overstepped his bounds.