FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: March 15, 2017
Contact: James Hallinan (505) 660-2216
Santa Fe, NM – New Mexico Attorney General Hector Balderas released the following statement in response to the ruling by U.S. District Court Judge Derrick Watson to halt President Trump’s new, illegal travel plan:
“I am pleased that the judge agreed that this new executive order was enacted with a clear, discriminatory intent to act as a poorly-disguised Muslim ban, and that the ban would harm our universities and economy in New Mexico.” Attorney General Hector Balderas filed a brief Monday in support of Hawaii’s challenge to President Trump’s revised executive order restricting travel and refugee resettlement. The amicus brief, filed by 13 states and the District of Columbia, requested that the federal court hearing Hawaii’s lawsuit enter a nationwide injunction preventing the implementation and enforcement of the executive order that would have gone into effect on Thursday. The brief explains that despite the Trump Administration’s revision of its original executive order to remove obviously unconstitutional provisions, the new executive order remains an unconstitutional attempt to restrict travel from six predominately-Muslim countries and to suspend completely the nation’s refugee resettlement program.
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