As Travel Ban Takes Effect, Hawaii Files Motion on New Rules

As President Donald Trumps modified travel ban went into effect Thursday night, the state of Hawaii filed an emergency motion asking for clarification on the new rules governing who is and isnt allowed in the country under the new order.

A recent Supreme Court decision allowed parts of the travel ban to go into effect as the court prepares to hear the full case in October. The Supreme Court decision limited the ban by preventing it from applying to foreign nationals who have a credible claim of a bona fide relationship with a person or entity in the United States.

Before the ban went into effect Thursday, the Trump administration issued new guidelines to carry out the decision on what constitutes a bona fide relationship, forcing applicants to prove that they have a relationship with a parent, spouse, child, adult son or daughter, son-in-law, daughter-in-law or sibling in the U.S. in order to enter the country, or a relationship with a U.S. institution.

According the New York Magazine, Hawaiis motion asks the same judge who blocked the travel ban in March to issue an order clarifying that the Trump administration cant prevent other relatives, such as grandparents, aunts and uncles, from qualifying as bona fide relations.

The Government does not have discretion to ignore the Courts injunction as it sees fit, the motion said. The State of Hawaii is entitled to the enforcement of the injunction that it has successfully defended, in large part, up to the Supreme Court — one that protects the States residents and their loved ones from an illegal and unconstitutional Executive Order.

According to New York Magazine, the Trump administration said that they took their definition of close family members from the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965, although they added some relations, like in-laws, because one of the plaintiffs in the Hawaii case wanted his Syrian mother-in-law to be able to visit. The Supreme Court ruling said that she counts as someone with a bona fide relationship to the U.S. Another rule saying that refugees with longstanding ties to refugee placement agencies in the U.S. dont count as having a bona fide relationship with a U.S. entity is also expected to draw criticism, according to the analysis.

According to Reuters, the judge ordered the Justice Department to respond to Hawaiis request by Monday.

At the same time, the Trump administration has modified its list of allowed family members to include fiancés, according to an anonymous State Department official who spoke with Reuters.

Meanwhile, the implementation of the travel ban was not marked by the airport protests that broke out when the ban was first implemented earlier this year. According to Newsday, JFK Airport was quiet Thursday night as the order went into effect.

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