Oregon joins legal fight against immigration order

SALEM, Ore. (AP) – Oregon Attorney General Ellen Rosenblum’s office said it is joining the legal fight playing out against President Donald Trump’s immigration travel ban.

Rosenblum said Monday that Oregon is supporting Washington state’s lawsuit against Trump’s executive order by signing a friend of the court brief in the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals along with more than a dozen other states.

Last week, a federal judge in Seattle ordered a temporary halt to Trump’s order banning the entry of people from seven Muslim-majority countries.

Rosenblum said Monday her office is ready to assist in the Washington state lawsuit however it can. Rosenblum also said she will seek to have Oregon added to the lawsuit.

Meanwhile, Rosenblum and the attorneys general from 14 other states and the District of Columbia are urging a federal appeals court to uphold a lower court judge’s stay on President Donald Trump’s immigration order.

The friend of the court brief was filed Monday with the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco.

The 23-page filing was signed by AGs from California, Connecticut, Delaware, Washington, D.C., Illinois, Iowa, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Mexico, New York, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Vermont and Virginia.

The officials say Trump’s executive order targeting refugees and nationals from seven predominantly Muslim countries hurts their states’ economies. They say it also disrupts education and medical services and violates First Amendment-protected religious liberties.

Trump has argued the U.S. must protect its borders from would-be foreign terrorists.

Government lawyers are expected to file court papers later Monday.

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Oregon Department of Justice news release:

SALEM–Attorney General Ellen Rosenblum today announced that Oregon has signed on with 15 other states to an amicus (friend of the court) brief in the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals in support of Washington in their federal lawsuit against the Trump Administration’s executive order on immigration.

A temporary Restraining Order (TRO) was issued by a Washington state federal judge last week ordering a nationwide halt to implementation of the President’s Executive Order on immigration. The court is expected to decide in the next few days whether to uphold the trial court’s ruling after the federal government appealed.

“If the appellate court upholds the TRO, which we hope it will, it is likely to send it back to the trial court in Washington state for further proceedings,” Attorney General Rosenblum said. “We want to be ready to help in any way we can to establish the permanent illegality of the Executive Order.”

In addition to joining the amicus brief, Oregon is in close coordination with the Washington Attorney General, and will jointly ask the Washington judge to allow an amendment to add Oregon to the lawsuit-possibly as soon as Tuesday. The Washington complaint alleges that the President’s Executive Order on Immigration is unconstitutional on multiple grounds, including religious and national origin discrimination.

“I am pleased that Washington Attorney General Bob Ferguson has invited us to join their lawsuit against the federal government. By joining Washington, we will be able to share legal resources with our neighboring state and at the same time ensure that the voices of Oregonians harmed by the President’s executive order are heard,” said AG Rosenblum.

In today’s amicus brief, Oregon and the other states outline the harm that the Executive Order has caused residents, and outlines that the states have standing to challenge the immigration executive order because of the harm the order inflicts on the states themselves. The amicus brief is signed by Attorneys General from California, Connecticut, Delaware, the District of Columbia, Illinois, Iowa, Maine, Massachusetts, Maryland, New Mexico, New York, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Vermont and Virginia.