Stein joins 16 other attorneys general in lawsuit against Trump's immigration ban

N.C. Attorney General Josh Stein joined a lawsuit opposing President Donald Trump’s immigration ban on Tuesday.

Stein and 16 other Democratic attorneys general are supporting the federal lawsuit against Trump’s order, put in place by the states of Washington and Minnesota.

“President Trump’s immigration ban is contrary to American values,” Stein said.

He said the immigration ban does the opposite of protecting the country from terrorism by giving power to ISIS.

“The signal that this ban sends is that America believes that all Muslims are terrorists which, of course, is not true,” he said. “So we’re playing right into the hands of ISIS, making it easy for them to recruit new terrorists and giving them propaganda.”

Stein said he isn’t the only one with this perspective.

“A group of a hundred former national security experts from both parties, Republican and Democratic parties, spoke out against the ban, including former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, including Republican U.S. senators Lindsey Graham and John McCain,” Stein said.

Stein’s lawsuit is one of dozens that have recently been filed against Trump, including another by the American Civil Liberties Union.

Chris Brook, legal director of the ACLU of N.C., said Trump’s ban clearly violates the Establishment Clause of the U.S. Constitution.

“After the executive order was entered, Trump heatedly admitted on Christian Broadcasting (Network) that his executive order and his administration would favor Christian refugees fleeing persecution over Muslim refugees that are similarly situated, or over Buddhist, Jews, Sikhs suffering persecution,” he said.

Catherine Kim, a UNC law professor specializing in immigration, said the government cannot discriminate on the basis of religion or race, even in the context of immigration or national security.

“It just can’t be that the president, without listening to any of the agencies’ expertise, without any direction from Congress, just unilaterally, one man signs something to implement this kind of pretty significant and troubling ban,” Kim said.

Kim said the executive order has broad implications.

“The issue is these are cases of massive constitutional import,” she said. “Not only with respect to defining the scope of individual rights, but also in terms of defining the proper relationship between the president, the agencies, Congress, and the courts.”

Lower courts have put temporary restraining orders on the executive order, she said.

“We need to keep the status quo and allow for full argument,” she said. “Again, the government is asking the courts to say, ‘Oh it’s justified by national security, just trust us on that,’ without any development of a factual record to defend that position.”

Stein said he will continue to monitor Trump’s policies.

“I’ll just keep a close eye on what the president and his administration does,” he said. “If he does things that are harmful to the people of North Carolina, I’m not gonna hesitate to step forward and protect our interests.”

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