Resistance Report: Hawaii kicks off challenges to revised travel ban

ALOHA MEANS HELLO AND GOODBYE. Hawaii will sue over Trump’s new travel ban. “The state of Hawaii said in a court filing Tuesday that it intended to file a legal challenge to President Trump’s revamped executive order pausing refugee resettlement and immigration from six majority-Muslim countries,” reports the Los Angeles Times. “In a court filing in the state, Hawaii Atty. Gen. Douglas Chin asks the court to approve a swift briefing schedule on the state’s intended request for a temporary restraining order blocking the new travel ban before it takes effect on March 16.”

CITY OF ACTIVISTS. The mayor of Los Angeles, which has one of the largest populations of undocumented immigrants in the country, drew some activist attention Tuesday.

REMEMBER THEIR HISTORY. Alex Roarty of McClatchy reports that Trump’s immigration and refugee policies have had the astonishing effect of turning Mennonites in Lancaster County, Pa., into activists:
Mary Beth Martin and Lindsey Martin Corbo each held one side of the large cardboard poster, the mother and her adult daughter eager to deliver a personal if unconventional message to their congressman, Republican Rep. Lloyd Smucker.

“Hey Smucker,” said the sign, written in red, green, and blue markers. “300 years ago our Mennonite family took sanctuary in PA, just like yours did.

“Lancaster values immigrants.”

The anger might have been directed at Smucker, but Martin and Corbo were really there — like 100 others — because of President Donald Trump.

The two women were among a hundred newly engaged activists assembled in Republican-heavy Lancaster County — an area that went for Trump in November by 57 percent — braving toe-freezing temperatures to protest Trump and the lawmaker, who was 200 yards away at a Chamber of Commerce breakfast.

That Martin and Corbo were protesting was — by their own admission — a remarkable development. Both are members of the Mennonite Church, a religion that encourages its members to stay away from politics, just as it asks them to shun the wider culture.

ANTI-REFUGEE SENTIMENT MAY HAVE SWUNG THIS VERMONT RACE. Meanwhile, a mayor in Rutland, Vermont — population 17,292 — just lost reelection thanks to his support for bringing Syrian refugees to the town. Reports Seven Days:

Rutland Mayor Chris Louras, who endured months of withering criticism for his plan to bring Syrian refugees to the city, lost his reelection bid on Tuesday.

In unofficial voting results, David Allaire, a city alderman and leading critic of the resettlement, trounced Louras, a 10-year mayoral incumbent, by a 776-vote margin, according to results cited by the Rutland Herald and WCAX-TV.

“I’m simply wishing him luck and I’m moving on,” Louras told Seven Days Tuesday night. He declined further comment, saying he would “not hazard a guess” as to what the election results say about Rutland’s support for refugees.

Louras had beaten Allaire in two previous mayoral elections.

A FAMILY AFFAIR. Linwood Kaine, 24, the son of former Hillary Clinton running mate Sen. Tim Kaine (D-Va.), was arrested while allegedly disrupting a pro-Trump rally at the Minnesota State Capitol over the weekend. “We love that our three children have their own views and concerns about current political issues,” the elder Kaine said in a statement. “They fully understand the responsibility to express those concerns peacefully.”

DEMOCRACY DIES IN DARKNESS. That’s the new tagline of the Washington Post, and when the lights went out at the Statue of Liberty Tuesday night, people on Twitter quickly took it as a sign about the future of liberty in America. The Women’s March organization, along with a number of others, tweeted that it was an early sign of support for their “A Day Without a Woman” action. Officials later said it was a temporary power failure.

WOMEN’S DAY. Reports Yahoo News: “The Women’s March on Washington and its sister marches showed the power of women coming together in one place, leading to the largest single-day demonstrations in American history. Now the group behind the march is looking to showcase women’s workplace and purchasing power through their absence.

“Wednesday’s ‘A Day Without a Woman’ action involves a retreat from engagement with the world as a way of highlighting women’s central roles within it. No going to work. No spending money or shopping, except at small and women-owned businesses. No unpaid labor, either. Wear red clothing in solidarity, when striking is not possible.

“This ‘general strike’ action, held in connection with International Women’s Day and in solidarity with the International Women’s Strike, has been criticized by some U.S. movement supporters for asking women to risk their jobs in a nation where only 10.2 percent of women are in unions. But the organizers see it as the next step in their efforts to empower women opposed to President Trump’s agenda and character.”

Read the full story here.

(Cover thumbnail photo: Rolf Schulten/ullstein bild via Getty Images)

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