President Trump in Nashville on Wednesday defended his revised travel ban, which earlier in the day was blocked by a federal judge in Hawaii.
“We’re going to take our case as far as it needs to go, including all the way up to the Supreme Court,” Trump said during his speech at the Nashville Municipal Auditorium. “We’re going to win. We’re going to keep our citizens safe.”
The ban is part of an executive order issued March 6 that outlines measures to protect America from terrorists and others wishing to harm the U.S. The new order was released in response to a similar order from Jan. 27 that was blocked by a federal judge in Washington state and the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals. Various changes were made to try to appease judges, but Wednesday’s ruling in Hawaii shows that hurdles still exist because of what Trump called “judicial overreach.”
Among other revisions, the new order took Iraq off a list of seven Middle Eastern countries whose citizens are temporarily barred from entering the U.S.
The revised executive order temporarily bans citizens of six Middle Eastern countries who do not currently have “green card” immigration status from entering the U.S.: Yemen, Sudan, Somalia, Syria, Iran, and Libya.
Trump indicated in his speech that he was under pressure by lawyers to make the changes, but that he himself prefers the original executive order. He called the March 6 order a “watered-down” version of the first one.
“Let me tell you something, I think we ought to go back to the first one and go all the way, which is what I wanted to do in the first place,” he said.
Trump read from the federal statute that allows the president to bar entry to the U.S. for national security reasons. He noted that famed lawyer and author Alan Dershowitz has said that Trump would win before the Supreme Court.
In his speech, Trump also said he plans to follow through on his plan to build a border wall. He said illegal entries are already down at the border and should continue to fall as word spreads that the border has become stronger. He underscored the need to curtail drug trafficking and stop illegal immigrant criminals from harming and killing American citizens. Illegal immigrant criminals are being rounded up and thrown in jail and out of the country, he said, stating emphatically that “we will not let them back in.”
Trump also reiterated his promise to “repeal and replace Obamacare” and give Americans affordable options for healthcare. However, he did not go into detail about his ideas or those being debated currently in Congress.
In addition, Trump said that he would tackle the “bloated” bureaucracy in Washington, D.C, slash regulations, enforce trade rules and bring jobs back to the U.S. He also expressed support for law enforcement and his commitment to defending the 2nd Amendment.
