Three days after the Supreme Court partially lifted the stay on President Donald Trump’s travel ban, the government began enforcement on Thursday night at 8 p.m.
On Thursday afternoon, the State Department released new guidance about how they will interpret the Supreme Court’s directive that refugees and visitors with “bona fide” connections to the United States be permitted to enter. But the strictness of those standards raised some eyebrows: parents, siblings, children, and spouses of U.S. citizens will be permitted to enter the country, but not grandparents, uncles, aunts, or cousins. The State Department initially said fiancés would be banned as well, but reversed that decision later on Thursday.
In a conference call Thursday afternoon, a senior administration official said that this distinction was based on the definition of family in the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965.
By arguing that close relatives like grandparents or cousins do not pass the “bona fide” relationship test, the Trump administration runs the risk of having their travel ban pitched back into the courts the same week it got temporarily out of it. Hawaii filed a suit against the Trump administration in federal court Thursday afternoon, arguing that the State Department guidance ignored the constraints the Supreme Court had placed on it.
“The Government does not have the discretion to ignore the court’s injunction as it sees fit,” the complaint reads.
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01.18.2025