Judge: Travel ban can’t be enforced on Syrian family

Associated Press

MADISON, Wis.

A federal judge on Friday blocked President Donald Trump’s administration from enforcing his new travel ban against a Syrian family looking to escape their war-torn homeland by fleeing to Wisconsin.

The ruling likely is the first by a judge since Trump issued a revised travel ban Monday, according to a spokesman for the Washington state attorney general, who has led states challenging the ban.

A Syrian Muslim man who was granted asylum and settled in Wisconsin has been working since last year to win U.S. government approval for his wife and 3-year-old daughter to leave the devastated city of Aleppo and join him here. The man, who is not identified because of fears for his family’s safety, filed a federal lawsuit in Madison in February alleging Trump’s first travel ban had wrongly stopped the visa process for his family. U.S. District Judge Michael Conley set that challenge aside after a federal judge in Washington state blocked the entire Trump travel order.

Trump signed a new executive order Monday.

The Syrian man filed a new complaint Friday afternoon, alleging the new order is still an anti-Muslim ban that violates his freedom of religion and right to due process. He asked Conley to block its enforcement against his family.