John Kerry, Madeline Albright Call On Courts To Uphold Block On Trump Travel Ban

SAN FRANCISCO, CA — A group of prominent Democrats, including former Secretaries of State John Kerry and Madeline Albright, have signed on to a joint declaration calling on the courts to maintain the temporary restraining order granted against parts of President Donald Trump's executive order that temporarily bans nationals from seven Muslim-majority countries from entering the United States.

The declaration, filed simultaneously with the response from the states of Washington and Minnesota to the government's emergency motion for stay against the temporary restraining order, was made Monday to the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit in San Francisco. The Department of Justice appealed a Seattle judge's order that for now lets nationals from the seven affected countries enter the U.S. to the court over the weekend.

In the declaration, the former officials say that they agree the United States faces real threats from terrorist networks and must take prudent steps to combat the threats, including the proper vetting of travelers to the United States.

"We are nevertheless unaware of any specific threat that would justify the travel ban established by the Executive Order on January 27, 2017," the declaration says."We view the Order as one that ultimately undermines the national security of the United States, rather than making us safer."

The officials write that they have collectively devoted decades to combating terrorist threats to the country, have held the highest security clearances and four of them were current on active intelligence regarding all credible terrorist threats as recently as a week before the order was signed.

The officials give a list of reasons why the order will harm the interests of the United States, including the endangering of U.S. troops and intelligence sources in the field and the disruption of partnerships that are critical to obtaining information sharing to address threats posed by terrorist groups like ISIL.

"In our professional opinion, the Order was ill-conceived, poorly implemented and ill-explained," the former officials write.

Along with Kerry and Albright, Susan E. Rice, who served as National Security Advisor under President Obama, and Leon Panetta, who has served as director of the CIA and as the secretary of Defense, signed the declaration.

Meanwhile, the response filed by the states of Washington and Minnesota, says that granting the Trump administration's request to overturn the restraining order would cause "chaos." Due to the judge's temporary restraining order, the Department of Homeland Security is allowing previously barred travelers from entering the country and the State Department cancelled the revocation of tens of thousands of visas.

Read the full declaration below:

Image Credit: Ralph Alswang used under Filckr Creative Commons