Modified U.S. Travel Ban Goes into Effect with another Court Challenge

Attorneys camp out at Los Angeles International Airport to assist travelers from Muslim countries at Tom Bradley International Terminal in Los Angeles on Thursday. A limited version of President Donald Trump's executive order regulating immigration went into effect on Thursday. Photo by Jim Ruymen/UPI/| License Photo

 

 

June 30 (UPI) -- A modified executive order banning people from certain countries from traveling to the United States has gone into effect as opponents filed an emergency court order.

The limited version of an order temporarily banning travel from Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria and Yemen, all Muslim-majority countries, was implemented at 8 p.m. Thursday.

Senior administration officials expected that the ban would go smoothly and without the chaos and protests that greeted the original travel ban earlier this year, The Washington Post said. Advocates and immigration lawyers were at airports on the U.S. East and West coasts nonetheless to observe the execution of the order and to offer help. There were minimal reports of problems at U.S. airports.

The U.S. Supreme Court said Monday it will review appeals against President Donald Trump's temporary restrictions, although portions of the executive order could go into effect in the meantime.

The Supreme Court ruled that close family members and those with a demonstrable reason to be in the United States, such as a provable job opportunity or admission to a U.S. school, can enter the country. The Trump administration interpreted the ruling to mean that certain relationships do not qualify for entry, including: grandparents, grandchildren, uncles, aunts, cousins and fiancées to enter; sons-in-law, daughters-in-law and stepchildren. Advocates and lawyers criticized the family list as capricious.

Lawyers for the state of Hawaii filed an emergency motion against it in federal court in Hawaii less than 1 hour prior to the start of the ban. It argued that the list of relatives should be expanded and that the government should not forbid entry to refuges "who already have a documented agreement with a local sponsor and a place to live."

The State Department on Wednesday sent a long set of instructions to U.S. diplomatic posts around the world advising them of new rules and procedures for entry to the United States.

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