MONTGOMERY – Alabama Attorney General Steven T. Marshall announced today that Alabama is one of 13 States filing an amicus brief in support of the Trump administration’s executive order temporarily restricting the admission of foreign nationals from six countries posing a security risk to the United States. The executive order was recently ruled unconstitutional by a federal court in Maryland, and the Trump administration has appealed that ruling.
“As president of the United States, Donald Trump has the legal authority to restrict entry into this country of any foreign national who may pose a risk to our safety and security,” observed Attorney General Steven T. Marshall. “It defies reason that the federal courts would seek to block the Commander in Chief from exercising his legal authority to preemptively safeguard Americans’ security.
“In response, Alabama has sent a signal that we support the Trump administration’s executive order restricting entry of foreign nationals from six countries with the strongest record of terrorism: Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria and Yemen.”
The multi-state amicus brief filed Monday in the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit argues that those who oppose the Trump administration’s executive order are seeking to apply constitutional rights to non-citizens who are not even in this country.
“Their (plaintiffs’) theory calls for an extraordinary extension of constitutional rights to nonresident aliens who are outside this country and attempting to enter the country. Nonresident aliens who are in foreign territory clearly not under the sovereign control of the United States do not possess rights under the United States Constitution regarding entry into this county.”
Alabama joined Texas, Arizona, Arkansas, Florida, Kansas, Louisiana, Mississippi*, Montana, Oklahoma, South Carolina, South Dakota and West Virginia in filing an amicus brief Monday in support of the Trump administration. *Brief filed by the governor of Mississippi
