The Trump administration said it is against allowing travel to the U.S. for grandparents from six majority-Muslim countries whose grandchildren are U.S. citizens, Newsmax reports.
The Supreme Court issued a ruling that allowed part of the president’s travel ban order to go into effect, but cannot apply to anyone with a “bona fide” relationship with a U.S. citizen or U.S. entity.
After the ruling, the government said “bona fide” means close relatives such as parents, spouses, siblings, and children, according to Reuters. Grandparents, grandchildren, aunts, uncles, nieces, nephews, and cousins are banned under the order.
On Monday, the Justice Department argued the order “hews closely” to the Immigration and Nationality Act, a 1965 act that ranks family relationships for immigration policy reasons, NPR reports.
Organizations that help refugees said their work allows refugees to be qualified as having a “bona fide” relationship with a U.S. entity, but the Justice Department disagreed, Reuters reported.
“A refugee’s relationship with the agency flows from the government, not from an independent relationship between the refugee and the resettlement agency. Indeed, resettlement agencies typically do not have any direct contact with the refugees they assure before their arrival in the United States,” the government said, according to Reuters.
Trump’s initial travel ban in January led to chaos at airports around the world. After a judge blocked the original ban, Trump issued a scaled-down order, and the court’s action on Monday further reduced the number of people who would be covered by it. While the initial order took effect immediately, adding to the confusion, this one was delayed 72 hours after the court’s ruling, The Guardian reports.
Would-be immigrants from the six counties who won a coveted visa in the government’s diversity lottery, a program that randomly awards 50,000 green cards annually to people from countries with low rates of immigration to the US, will have to prove they have a “bona fide” relationship within the U.S. or are eligible for another waiver or face being banned for at least 90 days. That hurdle may be a difficult one for those immigrants to overcome, as many visa lottery winners do not have relatives in the U.S., or jobs in advance of arriving in the country.
Generally, winners only need prove they were born in an eligible county and have completed high school or have at least two years of work experience in an occupation that requires at least two other years of training or experience.
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