HIAS Slams Court For Allowing Parts Of Trump’s Muslim Travel Ban
Mark Hetfield Image by courtesy of HIAS
(JTA) — The Jewish resettlement agency HIAS decried the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision to allow parts of President Donald Trump’s travel ban to be enforced.
On Monday, the court said it would hear the appeals of two cases that had resulted from the travel ban, which aimed to keep the citizens from six predominantly Muslim countries from entering the United States for 90 days and all refugees for 120 days.
The high court agreed to stay parts of rulings that had blocked the ban from being enforced. The partial stay means that foreigners with no U.S. ties could be prohibited from entering the country, but those with ties such as through business or personal relationship would remain unaffected, The New York Times reported. Those who had been to the country previously also could enter.
HIAS — formerly known as the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society — is among the plaintiffs suing Trump in one of the cases the Supreme Court agreed to take on.
The group’s CEO and president, Mark Hetfield, lauded the fact that those with ties to the country would not be affected by the order, but criticized the fact that those without such ties could now be barred from entering the United States.
“We are very disappointed, however, that others will be arbitrarily excluded,” Hetfield said in the statement.
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