President Trump rolls out travel ban

Washington : President Donald Trump’s travel ban on people from six mostly Muslim countries will come into force late Thursday, as controversy swirls over who qualifies for an exemption based on family ties.

Delayed by five months of legal challenges before the Supreme Court partially backed Trump, the ban comes into effect at 8 pm Thursday eastern time (0000 GMT Friday), according to the New York Times, putting tight restrictions on the issuance of visas to travellers from Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria and Yemen.

But questions remained over the Supreme Court’s decision Monday to allow exceptions for anyone defined as having a “bona fide relationship” in the United States.

As of early Thursday, key agencies, including the State Department and the Department of Homeland Security, which controls immigration at US airport and border posts, had yet to issue any public statements on how that will be implemented.

According to the Times, citing State Department guidelines sent to embassies on Wednesday, the “bona fide relationship” exception will include people with “close family relationships” in the United States, defined to include parents, children, sons and daughters-in-law, siblings, and step- and half-siblings.

But close family does not include “grandparents, grandchildren, aunts, uncles, nieces, nephews, cousins, brothers-in-laws and sisters-in-law, fiances and any other ‘extended’ family members,” the guidelines say, according to the Times.

Exemptions to the ban also include people with formal relationships with a US entity, who have for instance been offered a job or accepted to study or lecture at a university. But a hotel reservation, even if already paid for, does not qualify as a “bona fide relationship.”

And the order stresses that non-profit groups cannot establish relationships with hopeful travelers just to allow them to skirt the ban.