Ken Paxton
AUSTIN – Leading a 16-state coalition, Attorney General Ken Paxton today filed an amicus brief with the U.S. Supreme Court in support of the Trump administration’s temporary travel ban, which was blocked by two lower courts before the Supreme Court allowed crucial parts of it to go forward in June. The high court agreed to take the case this fall.
The Trump administration’s revised executive order prohibits for 90 days the entry of travelers from six countries of national security concern while it reviews the vetting process. The countries are Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria and Yemen.
In the friend-of-the-court brief, Attorney General Paxton told the Supreme Court that the lower courts’ injunctions of the travel ban are contrary to law. “The injunctions extend even to ‘foreign nationals abroad who have no connection to the United States at all,’” he wrote. “These injunctions deny the federal government – under a statutory regime crafted by the people’s representatives in Congress – the latitude necessary to make national-security, foreign-affairs, and immigration policy judgments.”
“A pause on entry from terror-prone countries is justified to ensure that new arrivals are thoroughly vetted,” Attorney General Paxton said. “President Trump is fulfilling his promise to secure our border, protect our country and keep Americans safe from terror. Since 1980, 44 travel bans have been instituted by presidents, including six during the Obama-era. Yet various judges have gone out of their way to override President Trump’s lawful travel ban based purely on partisan politics.”
Texas is joined in the amicus brief by Alabama, Arizona, Arkansas, Florida, Kansas, Louisiana, Missouri, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, and West Virginia, along with Gov. Phil Bryant of Mississippi.
View the latest amicus brief here: http://bit.ly/2w5QMdC