US SC keeps Trump's refugee ban in place

The US Supreme Court kept the Trump administration's strict refugee ban in place Monday, at least temporarily dashing the hopes of some 24,000 already-approved immigrants.

Justices of the highest court in the land accepted the administration's emergency petition to stay a ruling by the San Francisco Appeals Court last week that would have allowed thousands of refugees already in the pipeline to come to the United States despite the ban.

That put the broader legal challenges to the travel ban -- which halts all refugees and travelers from six mostly Muslim countries -- off until an expected Supreme Court review on October 10.

On September 8, the San Francisco court upheld a ruling against the travel ban, saying that refugees who have formal assurances of resettlement in the United States from refugees assistance agencies are not covered by the ban.

The ruling would have taken affect yesterday, reopening the door to 24,000 people left in limbo by President Donald Trump's on-again off-again travel ban.

Meanwhile, four more US states announced Monday they are suing the Trump administration over its decision to rescind a program that deferred deportations of immigrants who arrived illegally as children.

The attorneys general of California, Maine, Maryland and Minnesota filed a joint lawsuit at a federal court in northern California, following a similar decision last week by a coalition of 15 states as well as the District of Colombia that houses the capital Washington.

California Attorney General Xavier Becerra said the program "has allowed more than 800,000 Dreamers, children brought to this country without documentation, to come out of the shadows and become successful and productive Americans."