Massachusetts joins other states fighting revised travel ban

Massachusetts is joining forces with other states to challenge a revised travel ban issued byPresident Donald Trump, the attorney general’s office confirmed Thursday.

“President Trump’s second travel ban remains a discriminatory and unconstitutional attempt to make good on his campaign promise to implement a Muslim ban,” Attorney General Maura Healey said in a statement.

Trump issued an executive order Monday banning immigration from six majority Muslim countries. It was a revised version of his January order, dropping Iraq from the list of banned nations.

The Massachusetts Attorney General’s office voluntarily dismissedits case against the ban Thursday and announced plans to join another suit next week, brought by Washington and Minnesota.

“We are consolidating our legal efforts and joining fellow states, led by Washington, in continuing to challenge this administration’s unlawful immigration policies,” Healey said.”We look forward to presenting our arguments to the court in the coming days to protect our residents, institutions, and economy in Massachusetts.”

Washington won a block against Trump’s first travel ban and is asking a judge to block the revised ban.

On Wednesday Hawaii filed a separate lawsuit against Trump’s revised travel ban, saying the order is harmful to its Muslim population, tourism and foreign students.

The ACLU has also pledged to fight the order.

“We remain proud of our urgent work in the last several weeks, and we stay deeply committed to protecting freedoms of all Massachusetts residents — and challenging any actions we believe to be illegal, unconstitutional and dangerous,” said ACLU Massachusetts legal directorMatthew Segal.