Mass. Attorney General Joins Fight Against Trump’s Immigration Order

The state of Massachusetts is joining a legal action seeking to roll back the Trump administration’s immigration executive order.

On Tuesday, Massachusetts Attorney General Maura Healey announced the state would intervene in an immigration executive order lawsuit brought against the Trump administration by two Massachusetts college professors.

The legal action opposes enforcement of a Jan. 27 presidential executive order that would bar citizens of seven Muslim-majority countries from entering the United States for 90 days.

Entry is barred indefinitely for Syrian refugees, and refugees from other countries are barred for 120 days.

Healy characterized the executive order as forcing Massachusetts to discriminate against persons based on their religion.

“The executive order is harmful, discriminatory and unconstitutional. It discriminates on the basis of religion and national origin, denies access to due process, violates immigration laws,” Healey said.

The Trump administration insists that the immigration executive order does not discriminate on the basis of religion but merely restricts entry from certain countries where the threat of terrorism is higher.

Healy was joined at her announcement by Massachusetts leaders from higher education, healthcare, industry, and immigration rights advocacy groups.

Marty Meehan, president of the University of Massachusetts, said the executive order undermines the university’s mission. UMass has 300 students from the seven countries subject to the executive order.

Mohamad Ali, CEO of data storage firm Carbonite Inc., decried the executive order as “morally and ethically beneath our American values.”

Healy’s office has already filed three other legal actions against the Trump administration, challenging executive actions that affect consumer finance, environmental regulations and higher education.

This immigration executive order lawsuit was filed by the Massachusetts ACLU on January 28, on behalf of petitioners Mazdak Pourabdollah Tootkaboni and Arghavan Loughalam. Both petitioners are Muslims and Iranian nationals, and both are lawful permanent residents of the U.S.

The petitioners are associate professors of engineering at the University of Massachusetts-Dartmouth. Both were returning to the U.S. from an academic conference overseas when they arrived at Logan Airport in Boston.

Upon arrival, they were detained by U.S. Customs and Border Protection and barred from leaving the airport.

This past Sunday, two federal judges in Boston granted the professors a temporary stay barring enforcement of the immigration executive order. The stay is effective nationwide for seven days. Healy says she will ask the court for an extension of that stay.

Carol Rose, president of the Massachusetts ACLU, said the immigration executive order lawsuit will be upgraded to a civil rights class action lawsuit once attorneys file an amended complaint.

Other courts across the nation are also standing against Trump’s immigration executive order. This weekend, a New York federal judge issued a court order that would stop the government from deporting two immigrants being detained at JFK airport.

The Immigration Executive Order Lawsuit is Mazdak Pourabdollah Tootkaboni and Arghavan Louhghalam v. Donald Trump, et al., Case No. 1:17-cv-10154, in the U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts.