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Trump criticizes US courts for blocking his Muslim travel ban

US President Donald Trump (Photo by AFP)

US President Donald Trump has increased his criticism of the US judiciary, describing the courts as "so political," a day after his travel ban on people from seven Muslim-majority countries faced close scrutiny from an appeals court.

"I don't ever want to call a court biased," Trump told hundreds of police chiefs and sheriffs from major cities at a meeting on Wednesday in a Washington hotel. "So I won't call it biased. And we haven't had a decision yet. But courts seem to be so political. And it would be so great for our justice system if they would be able to read the statement and do what's right."

A three-judge panel of the 9th US Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco, California, heard arguments on Tuesday on the Trump administration's challenge to a lower federal court order blocking his temporary travel ban.

 “If the US does not win this case as it so obviously should, we can never have the security and safety to which we are entitled," the new president said in tweet on Wednesday.

On Tuesday, lawyers with Justice Department and opposing attorneys for the states of Washington and Minnesota offered their legal arguments before the 9th US Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco, California, on whether or not Trump’s travel ban was constitutional.

Trump signed an executive order on January 27 that imposed a temporary travel ban on citizens from Iran, Iraq, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria and Yemen and placed an indefinite ban on Syrian refugees. The move also suspended admission of all refugees for 120 days.

On Friday, US District Judge James Robart, a federal judge in Seattle, Washington, granted a temporary restraining order against Trump’s travel ban. The fate of the order is being decided in courts in a legal battle that could end up in the Supreme Court.

A Syrian refugee mom clutches her daughter as they get through customs at O'Hare Airport on a flight from Istanbul, Turkey, in Chicago, Illinois, February 7, 2017. (Photo by AFP)

Even children fell victim to the cruel treatment, an issue that came into highlight following the hours-long detention of a 5-year-old Iranian boy at an airport in Washington.

In another instance, the parents of a 1-year-old Iraqi boy were not allowed to join their son, who was sent to the US for treatment after suffering serious burns at a refugee camp.

White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer defended the maltreatment of children, arguing that “age and gender” did not determine a person’s “security risk.”

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Thousands of Americans have also expressed their opposition to the ban by staging demonstrations and running online campaigns.

American voters oppose 51 - 46 percent Trump's executive order on immigration, according to a Quinnipiac University national poll released Tuesday.

Trump's executive order will make the nation less safe, 39 percent of voters say, while 38 percent say it will make the US more safe, the poll found, and 21 percent say the order won't affect safety.

"Significant pushback on immigration tells the president that many voters are not on board with a ban on refugees and that voters are strongly opposed to holding back those most threatened, Syrian refugees,” said Tim Malloy, assistant director of the Quinnipiac University Poll.


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