Trump lawyers get 2-week extension in travel ban lawsuit

A federal judge in Seattle is giving the Justice Department two more weeks to respond to a lawsuit regarding President Trump’s travel ban executive order, the Associated Press reported Saturday.

The suit alleges that the president’s Jan. 27 executive order is barring legal residents from reuniting with their children, who have been halted from coming to the U.S. The plaintiffs in the suit are seeking to make the filing a class-action lawsuit.

District Court Judge James Robart, the federal judge who blocked a major part of Trump’s executive action last month, granted Trump’s Justice Department extra time to respond, because the administration is planning to rescind the previous travel ban and issue a new one that it says can stand legal muster.

{mosads}The new deadline for the Justice Department to respond to is March 20.

Trump was expected to sign the new executive order earlier this week, but ultimately postponed the move. Now, administration officials say the order could come sometime next week at the earliest.

The original executive order barred citizens of seven Muslim-majority countries — Syria, Iran, Iraq, Yemen, Libya, Sudan and Somalia — from entering the U.S. and suspended the country’s refugee resettlement program.

It was met with significant backlash almost immediately after it was signed, as some people, who were in transit when it was issued, were detained at U.S. airports. Opponents of the measure argued that it is a de facto ban on Muslims.

A federal appeals court in San Francisco put the government’s enforcement of the order on hold last month. The Trump administration has since vowed to issue a replacement order.