Washington State Attorney General Bob Ferguson and 15 other state attorneys general are pledging to fight President Trump’s executive order that banned refugees from entering the United States and prompted the detention of refugees, legal residents with green cards, and others at airports around the country.
Ferguson and his fellow attorneys general vowed to oppose Trump’s executive order, and called it an “unconstitutional power grab.”
Ferguson and attorneys general of California, Connecticut, Hawaii, Illinois, Iowa, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Mexico, New York, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Vermont, Virginia and the District of Columbia released this statement Sunday:
“As the chief legal officers for over 130 million Americans and foreign residents of our states, we condemn President Trump’s unconstitutional, un-American and unlawful executive order and will work together to ensure the federal government obeys the Constitution, respects our history as a nation of immigrants, and does not unlawfully target anyone because of their national origin or faith.
“Religious liberty has been, and always will be, a bedrock principle of our country, and no president can change that truth.
“Yesterday, multiple federal courts ordered a stay of the administration’s dangerous executive order. We applaud those decisions and will use all of the tools of our offices to fight this unconstitutional order and preserve our nation’s national security and core values.
“We are confident that the executive order will ultimately be struck down by the courts. In the meantime, we are committed to working to ensure that as few people as possible suffer from the chaotic situation that it has created.”
Late Friday’s executive action has prompted demonstrations that numbered in the thousands in major cities across the country, including Seattle, this weekend.
On Bainbridge Island, small groups of people holding signs saying “No ban, no wall” and other messages gathered at the intersection of Highway 305 and High School Road Sunday evening and waved to passing traffic, prompting honking horns and shouts of approval in return from travelers on the highway.
The executive put in place a 120-day halt on resettlement of any refugee to the United States and a permanent ban on Syrian refugees. It also ordered an immediate 90-day suspension of immigrant and non-immigrant visas for citizens from Syria and a number of other Middle Eastern and African countries that are mostly Muslim.
