immigration lawyer

for his part, president trump visited the macdill air base in tampa, florida where the headquarters for two command centers of the armed forces are located, both of which are involved in the fight against terrorism. from there, president trump once again defended his executive order. "we will defeat radical islamic terrorism and we will not allow it to take root in our country.

we are not going to allow it. you have been seeing what has been going on in the last few days. we need strong programs so that people that love us and want to love our country, and will end up loving our country can come in, not people who want to destroy our country." at this point in our program, i would like to say hello to richard hein.

he is an attorney and expert in civil and human rights. richard, good afternoon. thank you for being with us. hi, idania, thank you very much for the invitation. it's a pleasure to see you and to greet all of the viewers of the channel of the americas. richard, i would start by asking you: "how far does the power of a president go?" this executive order at this point is on appeal -- well, it's in several courts -- but

the main one is in san francisco where the 9th circuit court of appeals is headquartered. and the washington judge is under that court of appeals. and this court of appeals has imposed several deadlines -- well, they really aren't deadlines, but rather, certain times today by which both sides file their written briefs. one party, the states which are suing president

trump had to file their brief at 1:00 a.m. this morning, and the opponent, mr. trump's administration is about to file, in approximately 90 minutes, its reply brief. you have to realize that the 9th circuit court of appeals is a circuit dominated by judges primarily appointed by democratic presidents, and so it leans a bit more to the left than other courts of appeals.

therefore, i suppose that this is going to end up in the supreme court because my suspicion is that the court of appeals is going to sustain the trial court in washington's restraining order. when i was asking about how far the power of a president goes, i was asking that because there is a permanent confrontation between the justice system and president donald trump. and this is escalating, which is to say that

president trump is allowing himself to doubt the person who is temporarily suspending his ban, asking if he is really a quote unquote "judge", or when he says that the blame in the event something happens, if something bad happens, will be these judges. sure, that type of rhetoric is really without precedent as far as i know in the united states, doubting the capacity of a judge to give an

opinion on a case he has in front of him. many commentators have said that this really is a new era in the history of the united states when a president doubts a judge's credentials, who is in another branch, of course, of the government, but who is equal with the presidency and also with the legislative branch. this has not risen to the level of a constitutional crisis yet, but if he rejects the opportunity

to enforce the judge's order, then this could end up in a constitutional crisis. now, every judge, richard, when he or she is about to make a decision, is under pressure, it's safe to say. much more in a case like this one with more or less a national reach. what could happen, even though you already mentioned your suspicion, but what could happen with the court of appeals, and what will the

process be after that? the court of appeals will arrive at a decision. the three judge panel of the ninth court of appeals in san francisco will hand down a judgment based on the briefs filed today, and that could even happen this week, or perhaps next week. i think it will be a very quick decision on the part of the court of appeals judges. i believe trump is not going to win at this stage,

which is the court of appeals level, and that he will appeal to the supreme court. at this moment in the united states, we only have 8 judges sitting on the supreme court, when there are really 9 seats. justice antonin scalia died a year ago, leaving a vacancy there on the supreme court. president trump has nominated judge gorsuch to the court, but he still has to go through

the approval process in the senate. so that judge has not been approved yet. so right now there is a tie between the judges who lean to the right and those who lean to the left. so if this gets to the supreme court with the vacancy still active, that would be a tie. and in that case, the decision of the court of appeals, which i believe will be made very soon, would end up being the final judgment.

so there is a lot yet to see until we know the final chapter of what will become of this executive order of president donald trump after hearing your explanation. richard hein, international attorney, richard, thank you, as always, for being with us on ntn24. idania, of course, it is always a pleasure to say hello to you.

have a good afternoon. same to you.