Congress must stop US President Donald Trump’s Muslim ban: Amnesty International

People stand holding placards as they take part in a protest called No Ban! No Wall! Get Loud, hosted by Amnesty International USA, inside Grand Central Station in New York City ,on March 3, 2017. (AFP photo)

Amnesty International has condemned the US Supreme Court ruling that partially reinstates President Donald Trump’s controversial travel ban on 6 Muslim-majority countries.

The prominent international human rights group urged the US Congress on Monday to nullify the top court’s ruling that allows Trump’s executive order to take effect until it hears arguments on the travel ban in October.

“It’s always been crystal clear that this policy was based on discrimination. Reinstating any part of this ban could create chaos in the nation’s airports and tear families apart,” Margaret Huang, Amnesty International USA executive director, said in a statement.

“This bigoted ban cannot be allowed to take effect again, and Congress needs to step in immediately to nullify it once and for all,” she wrote.

"Rather than keeping anyone safe, this ban demonizes millions of innocent people and creates anxiety and instability for people who want to visit a relative, work, study, return to the country they call home, or just travel without fear.”

The Supreme Court on Monday narrowed the scope of lower court rulings that blocked Trump’s Muslim ban from taking effect nationwide, and also agreed to hear the administration’s appeal in these cases. The ban would affect people from Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria and Yemen.

The court announced that it would hear arguments on the legality of Trump’s executive order in the court's next term, which is set to start in October.

The court, however, granted the government's emergency request to put the presidential decree into effect immediately while the legal battle continues.

According to the ruling, citizens of the six countries who do not have a bona fide relationship with a person or entity in America would be denied entry, but people who can prove they have a relationship to a person or entity inside the US will be permitted to travel to the country.

Trump issued a revised travel ban on March 6 after his initial directive signed in January was blocked by a federal judge in Washington state and upheld by the US Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit in San Francisco, California.

However, the revised order was also blocked by federal judges in the states of Hawaii and Maryland and upheld by the 9th Circuit Court and the 4th US Circuit Court of Appeals in Richmond, Virginia.

Last month, the 4th Circuit Court said the president’s revised order “drips with religious intolerance, animus and discrimination.”