WASHINGTON -- U.S. Sens. Robert Menendez and Cory Booker joined 27 other Senate Democrats Wednesday in introducing legislation to reverse President Donald Trump's latest effort to restrict travel from several countries to the U.S.
Trump's third attempt was supposed to take effect Wednesday, but two federal court judges temporarily blocked his executive order that imposed restrictions on eight countries, most them with Muslim majorities that have been targeted since his first executive order in January.
"Again and again, the courts have held that President Trump's efforts to single out Muslims in order to prevent them from entering the United States is unconstitutional religious discrimination," said Booker, D-N.J., who joined protests against Trump's original executive order.
"Our bill makes it clear that we will not accept any version of this ban and will do everything in our power to block this and any future attempts at this kind of unconstitutional and discriminatory overreach on the part of the president," he said.
The White House decried the court ruling, saying it "undercuts the President's efforts to keep the American people safe and enforce minimum security standards for entry into the United States."
The senators disagree.
"We will continue to fight back every step of the way until this recalcitrant White House drops their fixation on implementing a ban that fails to uphold fundamental American values, undermines the core values that built this country and does more harm than help the national security of the United States," said Menendez, D-N.J., a senior member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, which Booker also sits on.
During the campaign, Trump called for a ban on Muslims entering the country. His latest order targeted citizens from Iran, Libya, Syria, Yemen, Somalia, Chad, North Korea and Venezuela.
Though he originally cited 9/11 as the rationale for imposing such a ban, Trump never has imposed restrictions on visitors from Saudi Arabia, where 15 of the 19 hijackers came from.
Other sponsors included Senate Democratic Leader Charles Schumer of New York; U.S. Sen. Ben Cardin, D-Md., the top Democrat on the Foreign Relations Committee; and U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., who unsuccessfully sought the Democratic presidential nomination in 2016.
Several Democratic senators who, like Booker, are mentioned as potential 2020 presidential candidates, are also sponsors, including Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota, Kirsten Gillibrand of New York, Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts and Kamala Harris of California.
Jonathan D. Salant may be reached at jsalant@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @JDSalant or on Facebook. Find NJ.com Politics on Facebook.