Activists, lawyers and anti-Trump protesters are preparing for renewed confrontation at US airports over the president’s revised travel ban on visitors from six majority-Muslim countries that is scheduled to come into effect at midnight tonight, unless blocked again by federal courts.

“This second ban is just as unconstitutional as the first as it is motivated by the same religious animus,” said Simon Sandoval-Moshenberg, legal director of the Immigrant Advocacy Program, as reported in The Guardian. 

After being restrained by a a Seattle court in February, the White House released a second travel ban to remove some its anti-constitutional provisions. But it remains highly controversial and openly discriminatory against Muslims, according to civil rights activists.

States from Hawaii to Washington, immigration advocacy groups and private residents have filed lawsuits to block the new ban from going into effect, as happened when Trump issued his first travel ban in late January.

Federal judges will weigh the president's powers to secure the nation from terrorists against the constitutional rights of foreigners in the United States.

Hundreds of protesters are expected to fill the major international airports across the country today to demonstrate against the travel ban, which bans the entry to citizens from six majority Muslim countries: Iran, Somalia, Lybia, Syria, Yemen and Sudan (Iraq has been removed). The revised plan also imposes a 120-day ban on refugees attempting to be resettled in the US from anywhere in the world, but now allows people with permanent resident status in the US and valid visas to enter.

States have challenged the White House and rejected the amended executive order, signed by Trump on 6 March with a 10-day delay for implementation. They argue that the order is equally driven by anti-Muslim prejudice,  and that the restraining order should therefore be extended.

Should the travel ban come into effect tonight, hundreds of families will be forced to separate. The Guardian runs a story about a Yemeni couple on verge of reuniting in US may be derailed by new travel ban.