California is the latest state to join a legal challenge to President Donald Trump's revised travel ban.
Attorney General Xavier Becerra said Monday that California would sign on as a plaintiff in a lawsuit challenging the ban's constitutionality. Becerra said in a statement that the order despite being changed still represents an attack on people based on their religion or national origin.
Democratic attorneys general nationwide are trying to use the court system to thwart the executive branch's travel order.
Trump's revised ban bars new visas for people from six predominantly Muslim countries: Somalia, Iran, Syria, Sudan, Libya and Yemen. It also temporarily shuts down the U.S. refugee program.
The complaint alleges the president’s travel order will harm California “by reducing investment and industry in California and decreasing travel by students, scholars, and tourists.”
The UC system alone has 436 students on student visas from affected countries, the complaint alleges.
Also, health care may suffer as medical residency staffing will be impacted by the travel order. The state will also see a reduction in state taxes and tourism revenue, according to the complaint.
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California asserts that it hosts the greatest number of international students than any state, nearly 150,000. It also states it is home to more than 10 million immigrants. Of those, 213,689 California residents were born in Iran; 25,903 in Syria; 7,859 in Yemen; 5,505 in Somalia; and 1,761 in Sudan, the documents state citing the 2015 American Community Survey.
Also, one Washington state green card holder will be separated from her Iranian niece who was scheduled to be enrolled in a clinical trial for Niemann-Pick Disease Type C at Oakland Children’s Hospital. The child’s visa is set to expire on March 24, according to the complaint.
Read the complaint here.
