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Donald Trump wants to impose severe travel restrictions on citizens of Chad, Iran, Libya, North Korea, Somalia, Syria and Yemen.
Donald Trump wants to impose severe travel restrictions on citizens of Chad, Iran, Libya, North Korea, Somalia, Syria and Yemen. Photograph: Joshua Roberts/Reuters
Donald Trump wants to impose severe travel restrictions on citizens of Chad, Iran, Libya, North Korea, Somalia, Syria and Yemen. Photograph: Joshua Roberts/Reuters

Trump travel ban faces second setback as judge in Maryland blocks restrictions

This article is more than 6 years old
  • Judge Theodore Chuang issues injunction against third version of ban
  • White House called earlier decision by judge in Hawaii ‘dangerously flawed’

A second federal judge has blocked the Trump administration’s latest travel ban hours before it was set to take full effect.

Theodore Chuang, a US district judge in Maryland, granted a nationwide preliminary injunction late on Tuesday, after Derrick Watson, a US district judge in Hawaii, blocked the revised ban earlier that day. The ban sought to place travel restrictions on citizens of eight countries. The new restrictions had been slated to go into effect on Wednesday.

Watson’s ruling said the new ban failed to show that nationality alone made a person a greater security risk to the US.

Chuang’s ruling said the administration had “not shown that national security cannot be maintained without an unprecedented eight-country travel ban”.

In Hawaii, Watson ruled that Trump’s latest travel ban suffered from the same problems as a previous version, also blocked.

Watson granted the state of Hawaii’s request to temporarily block the Trump administration from enforcing the policy. His ruling said the latest version discriminates based on nationality.

The White House called Watson’s decision “dangerously flawed”. The justice department said it would appeal.

The restrictions were to apply to citizens of Chad, Iran, Libya, North Korea, Somalia, Syria and Yemen – as well as some Venezuelan government officials and their families.

It was the third set of travel restrictions issued by the president to be thwarted, in whole or in part, by the courts.

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