Daily Times

Washington DC: United States government has started implementing a travel ban, restricting entry to all those travellers [from six Muslim-majority countries] not counted among “close family relations” of U.S. citizens. The category has been defined such that it excludes grandparents.

The government argued that definitions outlined by U.S. Immigration Law allowed it to interpret how it wanted toimplement the temporary travel ban.

The Department of Justice lawyers filed court papers citingthat the government’s definition “hews closely to the categorical determinations articulated by Congress in the Immigration and Nationality Act.”

Last week, the U.S. Supreme Court had reinstated parts of Trump’s executive order that banned for 90-days entry of travellers from Yemen, Iran, Sudan, Somalia, Syria, and Libya. The highest court in the U.S. allowed Trump’s administration to move forward with restrictions, saying that the President’s travel ban can be applied to everyone – except people with a “bona fide relationship” with a U.S. person or entity.

According to government’s guidelines, close family relationships include parents, spouses, children, sons- and daughters-in-law, siblings, step- and half-siblings, and fiancés; but exclude grandparents, grandchildren, aunts, uncles and other extended family members.

President Trump insists that the measure is necessary to prevent terrorist attacks. However, opponents including refugee advocacy groups and many U.S. states who have sued the government to prevent implementation of the ban dismiss this reasoning. They say that the ban discriminates against Muslims.

“There have been no deaths caused by immigrants from the countries covered in the ban since 1975,”said Shawn Vandiver, Director of the Truman National Security projects. “The ban conveniently exempts several countries where the Trump family happens to conduct business. These countries include Saudi Arabia, Turkey and the United Arab Emirates.”

Trump’s travel ban was initially implemented in January 2017, creating chaos at U.S. airports – as it remained unclear to border agents and travellers who was allowed entry and who was covered under the ban.U.S. federal courts moved quickly to block key parts of the order banning travel from seven Muslim-majority countries. The order was then revised by Trump’s administration in March, removing Iraq from the list and removing language prioritising refugees in minority religious groups. But the directive got blocked again and was put on hold till Monday, when the Supreme Court agreed allowed certain parts of the directive to be reinstated. The new revised guidelines aim to reduce chaos this time around. However, Hassan Ali, an immigration lawyer who has set up a ‘drop in clinic’ at Dulles International Airport at Washington D.C.,still anticipates hundreds of confused travellers.

Speaking to Daily Times on Thursday, he said, “There is still ample room for misinterpretation and uncertainty.”

According to the Supreme Court’s decision, any refugee with a “bona fide relationship” with a U.S. entity is exempt from the 90-day ban. Refugees who hold a valid visa will be allowed in – but those still undergoing screening and resettlement process will be refused entry.

Refugee resettlement organisations argue that their relationship with refugees qualifies as a ”bona fide relationship” with a U.S. entity. The work refugee agencies involved “years of collaboration with the U.S. government,”said Matt Zeller, chief executive officer of No One Left Behind, an organisation assisting refugees who worked with American troops in conflict zones. But in a brief issued recently, the government has said, “A refugee’s relationship with the agency flows from the government, not from an independent relationship between the refugee and the resettlement agency.”The government has held that resettlement agencies typically do not have any direct contact with refugees they assure before their arrival in the U.S. Though Pakistan has not been included in the list of countries affected by the ban, the American-Pakistani community remains concerned about the possible expansion in the scope of the ban affecting the country in coming days.

Devansh Mehta runs a small travel agency in Queens,News York. His agency caters predominantly to clients of Pakistani origin. “About 90 percent of green-card-holding Pakistani customers have cancelled their flights out of New York,” he said, adding that people were concerned about getting back into the U.S.

Although Pakistan has been an important non-Nato ally for the U.S. in its war on terror, the relationship has lately beenfraught with tensions arising from mutual distrust and recriminations. Trump’s recently proposed budget cuts for Pakistan’s military aid indicate that the U.S. is putting pressure on Pakistan because of its alleged collusion with terrorist groups who damage U.S. interests in the region.

The author is Daily Times correspondent in Washington D.C.