White House expresses confidence travel ban will be restored

WASHINGTON (AP) — The White House says it expects the courts to restore President Donald Trump's ban on refugees and travelers from seven predominantly Muslim countries, an executive order founded on a claim of national security.

The next opportunity for the president's team to argue in favor of the ban will come in the form of a response to a lawsuit by Washington state and Minnesota contending that Trump's order harms residents and effectively mandates discrimination.

Bad! He followed with another tweet saying he had instructed the Homeland Security Department to check people coming into the country but that the courts are making the job very difficult!

Vice President Mike Pence said Sunday that "we don't appoint judges to our district courts to conduct foreign policy or to make decisions about the national security."

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.

[...] dozens of high-tech companies, including giants like Apple, Google, and Uber, filed briefs in court late Sunday siding with Washington state and saying the executive order hurts their businesses by making it harder to recruit employees.