Maryland Attorney General Brian Frosh announced Friday that he will formally join a multi-state lawsuit against President Trump’s revised immigration ban, citing that it could harm this state’s universities.
“President Trump’s second executive order is still a Muslim ban,” Frosh wrote in the news release. “… It makes us less competitive and sends a message to the most talented academics, scientists and engineers around the world that they are not welcome. It will harm Maryland’s universities and our economy. It is unwise, illegal and un-American.”
Maryland plans to join Washington state, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Oregon and New York in filing a complaint. Frosh’s ability to join the lawsuit against Trump’s travel ban comes on the heels of a recent General Assembly resolution that enables the attorney general to sue the federal government without permission from Gov. Larry Hogan.
Hawaii filed the first challenge against the new order in a separate lawsuit on Wednesday.
Trump last Monday issued his new executive order, which bars citizens from six Muslim-majority countries — Somalia, Iran, Syria, Sudan, Libya and Yemen — and places Syrian refugees under the 120-day ban. The ban takes effect March 16.
Unlike the previous January order that was struck down in court in early February, green card and visa holders will not be affected, and the ban does not give priority to barred countries’ religious minorities, such as Christians. Iraq has also been removed from the list.
Although the new travel ban does not bar international students with current visas, it could pose complications for newly admitted students expected to start school at the University of Maryland in the fall. International students from the six banned countries will not be able to apply for a visa until June 14, which will likely delay their arrivals.
The first travel ban, which Trump implemented with no advance notice, affected about 350 students at this university — primarily graduate students, postdoctoral researchers and visiting scholars, according to university President Wallace Loh’s Jan. 31 campuswide email.
The order left engineering doctoral student Abubakr Mohamed Hamid unable to return from Sudan until Feb. 21. Security officials also detained another student, Iranian citizen and green card holder Maryam “Aida” Mohammadi, in Washington Dulles International Airport for five hours on Jan. 28 after her return from visiting relatives in Turkey.
