A federal judge will hear arguments in San Francisco Thursday on a U.S. Justice Department request for dismissal of a lawsuit that alleges the government hasn't provided an orderly process for waivers from President Donald Trump's travel ban on five mostly Muslim countries.
The ban issued in a proclamation by Trump in September 2017 restricts entry by most immigrants and visitors from Iran, Libya, Somalia, Syria and Yemen. It was the third version of a travel ban by Trump and was upheld by a 5-4 vote of the U.S. Supreme Court in June.
The ban allows the possibility of waivers for individual applicants on a case-by-case basis when an individual's entry would not pose a security threat and would be in the national interest and denial of entry would cause undue hardship.
The lawsuit filed earlier this year by 36 people with origins in those five countries claims the administration has failed to provide publicly available guidance or procedures for applying for waivers.
The plaintiffs are either citizens of those countries or U.S. citizens or legal residents seeking visas for family members in those nations. They say their waiver requests have been denied or delayed.
The Justice Department contends in its motion for dismissal that no rights are being violated and that waiver requests are adjudicated within the standard visa application process.
The motion will be heard by U.S. District Judge James Donato.
The ban also applies to all visitors from North Korea and certain officials and their family members from Venezuela.
