Immigration Order: Massachusetts Files Challenge to Trump Executive Action

BOSTON, MA — Massachusetts Attorney General Maura Healey made good on a promise to see President Donald Trump in court Tuesday, joining a federal lawsuit opposing an executive order that bars immigrants and refugees from seven predominately Muslim countries from entering the country.

Healey called the order "harmful, discriminatory and unconstitutional," saying her office has reviewed the order and found it harms Massachusetts residents, businesses and academic institutions, in addition to violating federal immigration law and denying legal residents due process.

Massachusetts now joins a federal lawsuit sparked when two University of Massachusetts Dartmouth professors, both Iranian nationals and permanent Massachusetts residents, were detained over the weekend after flying back from engineering conferences abroad.

"With a wave of the pen, the president's executive order barred them and thousands of others from coming home," Healey said. "It sends the message that some people aren’t wanted, that people will be judged and classified and segregated."

The governor's office issued a statement backing the Attorney General's move Tuesday

Healey's actions have received measured support from Gov. Charlie Baker, who has said he believes the courts should "straighten out" an executive order that has seeded "confusion and chaos."

In addition to the Commonwealth, the American Civil Liberties Union of Massachusetts and poverty-fighting non-profit Oxfam have joined the suit.

President Trump has said his order does not discriminate based on religion. It is meant to safeguard the United States from "terror prone" areas initially flagged by the Obama administration for heightened scrutiny, Trump said, and will be lifted when the U.S has shored up its vetting process.

Hundreds of protesters flooded Logan International Airport Saturday night, chanting "Let them in!" as numerous passengers on incoming flights were reportedly detained under the executive order. In the wee hours of Sunday morning, a federal court judge in Boston ordered Customs officials not to remove anyone for the next seven days, one of several such orders issued amid the confusion Saturday night.

Thousands also protested the ban Sunday in Boston's Copley Square.

On Tuesday, a U.S. official told reporters nearly 900 refugees will be allowed into the country despite the executive order in a bid to prevent "undue hardship."

You can read more on that from the Associated Press here.

Patch will update this story.

Image via Attorney General's Office