Some legal analysis of Trump’s Muslim travel ban executive order

I read this woefully inadequate AP report this morning in the Arizona Daily Star which included this passage at the very end of the article without any explanation or analysis that could leave the false impression to readers uninformed in the law that this is a definitive statement of the law. White House predicts courts will reinstate travel ban:

The government had told the appeals court that the president alone has the power to decide who can enter or stay in the United States, an assertion that appeared to invoke the wider battle to come over illegal immigration.

Congress “vests complete discretion” in the president to impose conditions on entry of foreigners to the United States, and that power is “largely immune from judicial control,” according to the court filing.

So let’s begin with some basics. Deborah Pearlstein explains at the Balkinization Blogspot:

[Let’s] start with the basic legal question where the President gets the power to issue an order like this. It turns out to have a straightforward answer: Congress gave him the power in a law passed well before this administration, broadly authorizing the President to “suspend the entry of all aliens or any class of aliens as immigrants or nonimmigrants” whenever he finds their entry “would be detrimental to the interests of the United States.” (8 U.S.C. § 1182(f)) It is true that another law provides that no person may be discriminated against in the issuance of a visa on the basis of their “nationality, place of birth, or place of residence.” (8 U.S.C.§ 1152) There is a compelling argument that a court should read this anti-discrimination rule to limit the scope of the President’s power to suspend entries. But there are also arguments government lawyers will try to leverage against such a reading – like the argument that there is a difference between awarding visas and suspending entrance. And different judges read statutes differently.

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Performance Schedule for Tucson Chinese New Year Festival

Note location change this year to Tucson Mall, 4500 N. Oracle Rd. For their Chinese New Year celebration, the Tucson Chinese Cultural Center invites Hawaiian, Indian, Japanese, Korean and Vietnamese performers as well. Happy New Year of the Rooster. See www.tucsonchinese.org for more information.

Open Letter to Senators Flake and McCain

Cross-posted from RestoreReason.com.

Dear Senators Flake and McCain,

First of all, let me thank you for your service to our state and our country. I realize your job is not an easy one, but hope you understand this is also not an easy time to be an engaged patriotMillions of us are incredibly anxious about the future of our country and our world. At this time, more than almost anytime in my adult life, we need real leadership.

As a school board member, I am really worried about President Trump’s and his SecED nominee’s intentions with K–12 education. He thinks our nation’s current education system is “flush with cash” and that our children are “deprived of all knowledge.” For Arizona at least, both of these statements are ridiculous. Our per pupil funding is 48th in the nation and our teachers the 47th lowest paid. Even so, our student’s National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) scores continue to rise and we led the nation in growth on the science test from 2009 to 2015.

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Political Calendar: Week of February 5, 2017

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Political Calendar for the Week of February 5, 2017:

Sunday, February 5, 4:30 p.m.: Super Bowl LI, from NRG Stadium in Houston, TX.  New England Patriots v. Atlanta Falcons.

Monday, February 6, Noon: Democrats of Greater Tucson luncheon, Dragon’s View Restaurant (400 N. Bonita, South of St. Mary’s Road between the Freeway and Grande Avenue, turn South at Furr’s Cafeteria). New price: buffet lunch is $10.00 cash, $12 credit; just a drink is $3.50. (New) Featured speaker is Mike Holmes, former LD 14 House candidate. Next Week: Kitty Kennedy, on the congressional budget and Medicare. Following Week: Congressman Raúl Grijalva for a congressional update.

Monday, February 6, 6:30 p.m.: Chuck Collins, author of “Born on Third Base,” is doing a book signing at the IBEW Hall, 750 S. Tucson Blvd., Tucson. Collins gave away his family fortune at age 26 and now works with Inequality.org, a project of the Institute for Policy Studies. He is co-founder of Wealth for the Common Good, a network of business leaders, high-income households and partners working together to promote shared prosperity and fair taxation. In 1995, he co-founded United for a Fair Economy (UFE) to raise the profile of the inequality issue and support popular education and organizing efforts to address inequality. He was Executive Director of UFE from 1995-2001 and Program Director until 2005. For more information please contact Jenise Porter at (520) 881-1070, jenisep@gmail.com.

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