Following the debut of the latest iteration of President Donald Trump’s travel ban, a number of lawsuits are trying to strike it down.
The first lawsuit was filed by Iranian Alliances Across Borders, a Muslim student group in Maryland, was quickly followed by another lawsuit from nonprofit Brennan Center for Justice at New York University School of Law, according to Bloomberg.
The latest version, which many are calling “travel ban 3.0,” was issued by Trump September 24 and limits travel from Iran, Libya, Somalia, Syria and Yemen, which were all on the original list. Sudan has since been taken off and was replaced by bans from Chad, North Korea and Venezuela. The ban is expected to take effect October 18.
The lawsuit filed late Monday by Iranian Alliances Across Borders focuses on Trump’s remarks about Muslims during his campaign as the reason for the ban, and not as a national security measure. The group has asked for the ban to be halted during the case.
While many are unsurprised that the ban effects Muslim-majority nations as well as North Korea where there are growing tensions between the two leaders, many, including Chadian officials, are left puzzled as to why the Republic of Chad was added to the list, according to Bloomberg.
According to NPR, Chad has asked Washington to reconsider, as the policy “seriously undermines the image of Chad and the good relations between the two countries."
The executive order argues that Chad has not sufficiently shared public safety and terrorism-related information on terrorist groups, and that many are active within the country. Nigeria, however, is the base of terrorist group Boko Haram, and was not included on the list.
This latest ban could mean trouble for the tourism industry which has already seen a drop of 700,000 visitors in the first quarter of 2017. The New York Times reports that tourism from Europe was down 10.1 percent, Mexico down 7.1 percent, and even more from the Middle East and Africa.
Whether the travel ban and Trump’s anti-immigrant remarks have directly affected tourism numbers has yet to be confirmed, according to the Times.
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