Maryland is expected to join a Washington state-led lawsuit against the Trump administration over its revised travel ban against six countries in the Middle East and North Africa, according to a statement from the attorney general’s office on Friday evening.
Democratic Attorney General Brian Frosh said his office will officially join Washington, Oregon, Minnesota and other states in the legal action on Monday.
“The administration persists in an effort to implement a policy that is inhumane and unconstitutional, but also makes us less safe, not more safe,” Frosh said in a statement. “Trump’s second executive order is still a Muslim ban.”
Maryland is currently run by Gov. Larry Hogan, a Republican, though it’s unclear if he supported or protested his attorney general’s taking legal action against President Trump’s March 6 order. Frosh argued the travel ban would make Maryland would lose potential visits from academians, scientists and engineers from the six countries in the order.
The new order is set to go into effect next Wednesday and would exclude Iraqi citizens, legal permanent residents and existing visa holders from a list of six countries whose residents cannot enter the U.S. for 90 days.
Previously, Washington state and a handful of states sued the administration for the president’s executive order to temporarily suspend immigration from Somalia, Iran, Iraq, Sudan, Syria, Libya and Yemen. More than 20 parties launched suits against the federal government, claiming it discriminated against Muslim-majority countries.
In February, Seattle-based U.S. District Judge James Robart ruled in favor of a lawsuit by Washington State Attorney General Bob Ferguson. The restraining order was granted on a national level and took effect immediately, causing the Trump administration to rewrite the order.
The 9th Circuit Court of Appeals later preliminarily ruled in favor of Washington, forcing the White House to go back to the drawing board on its plan.
