Trump deliberately splitting families apart with definition of "family"

Travel ban takes effect as State Department defines ‘close family’

After five months of bitter legal squabbling, the Trump administration’s modified travel ban took effect Thursday night under new guidelines designed to avert the chaos of the original rollout. But the rules will still keep many families split and are likely to spawn a new round of court fights.

The State Department on Thursday announced new criteria to determine who will be allowed to enter the United States as a visitor or a refugee. The travel restrictions are temporary for now — 90 days for visitors and 120 days for refugees coming from six Muslim-majority countries: Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria and Yemen. But the administration took a particularly strict interpretation of a Supreme Court ruling Monday that only those with “bona fide” relationships, such as close family members, can enter the country.

The administration’s new rules do not allow grandparents, grandchildren, uncles, aunts, cousins and fiances. They do allow sons-in-law, daughters-in-law and stepchildren.

Advocates and lawyers criticized the family list as capricious.

“The president is supposed to protect American families, not rip them apart,” said Shayan Modarres, a lawyer with the National Iranian American Council


https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/travel-ban-to-take-effect-as-state-department-defines-close-family/2017/06/29/03eb8a8e-eba6-4749-9fa2-79117be89884_story.html?utm_term=.8fc0a1608a06

* So blood relatives are not family?*