Trump's travel ban win (sort of)

Politico 

By Ted Hesson

June 27, 2017

Trump's travel ban win (sort of) 

TRUMP’S TRAVEL BAN WIN (SORT OF): President Donald Trump’s travel ban will be partly reinstated, the Supreme Court said Monday. In an unsigned order, the court agreed to allow the ban to take effect, but stipulated that it “may not be enforced against foreign nationals who have a credible claim of a bona fide relationship with a person or entity in the United States.” The travel ban, you may recall, halts for 90 days the issuance of new visas from six majority-Muslim countries (Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria and Yemen) and halts for 120 days the refugee resettlement program.

What, you ask, constitutes “a credible claim of a bona fide relationship with a person or entity in the United States”? For persons, it means “a close familial relationship.” For entities, it means employment by a business or enrollment at a school. The relationship must be “formal, documented, and formed in the ordinary course, rather than for the purpose of evading [the executive order].”

POLITICO’s Josh Gerstein writes that the “credible claim” caveat would appear to allow a great deal of travel to continue. “Immigrant advocates said few people in the six countries affected by the visa ban seek to enter the United States purely for tourism,” Gerstein writes, “with no relationship with some American person or entity. But the order could be tougher on refugees, who are less likely to have connections to the United States.” The question of whose claim is credible and whose isn’t could potentially lead to more lawsuits, as Justice Clarence Thomas noted in a partial dissent. (Thomas, along with Justices Samuel Alito and Neil Gorsuch, would have let the policy move forward in its entirety.)

Trump declared victory after the announcement. “Very grateful for the 9-O decision from the U. S. Supreme Court,” he tweeted. “We must keep America SAFE!” Mind you, the Supreme Court has not yet rendered a decision on anything other than the lower courts’ injunctions against the travel ban. The high court’s decision on the travel ban itself can’t proceed until it hears arguments, and that won’t happen until October. 

For more information, go to:  www.beverlyhillsimmigrationlaw.com