Healey: Trump Immigration Order Counter To 'Rules We Live By'
BOSTON (CBS) -- Massachusetts Attorney General Maura Healey is calling President Trump's ban on travelers from seven Muslim-majority countries "harmful" and "uncalled for."
Healey has joined 15 other state attorneys general condemning President Trump's executive order. Over the weekend, a Boston federal court judge ordered a stay, blocking enforcement of it for 7 days.
As a result, many lawyers have been encouraging people who could be affected by the order to change their travel plans to fly into Logan Airport, where they will have better protection.
Volunteer immigration lawyers gathered at Logan Monday morning to speak with passengers to make sure the Boston federal judge's ruling was being followed.
Healey said her office is paying close attention to the situation and considering all their options going forward.
"Principles of due process and fair process mean something. Principles of liberty and freedom mean something and there are certain rules that we live by here in this state and across this country and, unfortunately, I saw the president's executive action as being counter to that," Healey said.
The attorney general was in Dorchester Monday morning to help introduce an anti-violence initiative for middle school students. While at the Martin Luther King Junior K-8 School, Healey met twin girls who were born in the United States to Somali immigrants. They expressed their concern about the president's executive order.
When Healey assured them they would be okay, one of the girls started to cry.
"That's what this is all about. That's why it's so important that we stand up for freedom, that we stand up for liberty, that we stand up against acts of intolerance, whether they're acts caused by racial bias or religious bias or ethnic bias. There's a reason that's not who we are as Americans," Healey told WBZ NewsRadio 1030's Carl Stevens.
"We're not going to allow intolerance and those who are in fear, I want them to know we'll do everything we can to protect them and to help them," the attorney general added.
Massachusetts Rep. Seth Moulton has also been an outspoken critic of the president's executive order, especially when it comes to helping those who helped U.S. troops in Iraq.
"This is a real serious problem. It's going to make it much more difficult to ever work with Muslim allies in the future," Moulton told WBZ NewsRadio 1030's Carl Stevens Monday.
Moulton says there is a backlog of several thousand Muslims who assisted the military waiting to immigrate to the United States. And that has veterans, like Moulton, concerned.
"So, I have one translator who worked with me every single day back in 2008. And he and his family have been targeted by the terrorists still in Iraq. We just got them over here to America a couple of months ago. And thank God they're here," he said. "It's actually a lot worse than most people imagined."
An attorney with the American Immigration Lawyers Association told WBZ-TV there will be a hearing later this week to determine what will happen after the federal court's 7-day stay expires.
WBZ NewsRadio 1030's Carl Stevens reports
