Hawaii Attorney General Douglas Chin rebutted the Trump administration’s argument that it was using U.S. immigration law standards when it defined what constitutes close family relations in its partially reinstated travel ban for people from six mostly Muslim nations.
The state is asking U.S. District Judge Derrick K. Watson to clarify what the U.S. Supreme Court meant last month when it said the government can refuse entry by citizens of Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria and Yemen who do not have a “bona fide” relationship with a person or entity in the United States. The high court said a personal relationship must be a close familial one.
The state is objecting to the banning of grandparents, grandchildren, aunts, uncles, nephews, nieces, cousins and other close relatives.
In response to the state, the Trump administration told Watson’s court Monday that close family relationships are defined by the Immigration and Nationality Act.
On Wednesday, Hawaii responded by saying other immigration laws include family members the Trump administration wants to exclude.
The Trump administration started enforcing the 120-day ban on refugees and 90-day ban on everyone else from the six countries last Thursday. According to guidelines published on the U.S. Department of State’s website just hours before the ban took effect, the government said the ban excludes spouses; children; whole, half and stepsiblings; and parents, including in-laws. On Friday the government added fiances.
Chin’s Wednesday filing said: “The government has acknowledged its error in excluding fiances from its definition of ‘close familial relationship.’ … Yet it still adheres to the preposterous contention that grandchildren, siblings-in-law and other fundamental relations are not ‘close family,’ and that excluding them somehow imposes ‘no burden’ on persons in the United States. … That argument is as wrong as it sounds, and nothing in the Supreme Court’s opinion supports it.”
Chin said in a news release: “The Trump administration’s guidelines may inflict a concrete hardship by excluding grandparents, uncles, nieces, cousins and more. This is why we have asked the federal court to clarify the scope of its injunction.”
Watson could rule on the state’s request any time.
Hawaii Reply Memo To Travel Ban Scope by Honolulu Star-Advertiser on Scribd
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
