After months being blocked by the courts, and 72 hours after the U.S. Supreme Court partially lifted those judicial stays, what remains of President Trump's travel ban on refugees and visitors from six majority-Muslim countries will go into effect at 8 p.m. EDT on Thursday, according to a State Department cable sent out Wednesday and subsequently obtained by The Associated Press. On Monday, the Supreme Court agreed to review Trump's travel ban and the injunctions against it, ruling that in the meantime the ban could go into effect, but only for would-be visitors who don't have "bona fide relationships" within the U.S. The ruling affects new visas for people from Iran, Libya, Syria, Sudan, Somalia, and Yemen.
Wednesday's cable lays out what the Trump administration considers "bona fide" family and business relationships. For family, that means only "close" family — parents, spouses, children, siblings, or sons- or daughters-in-law already living in the U.S., but not grandparents, grandchildren, aunts, uncles, nieces, nephews, siblings-in-law, or cousins, AP says. Legitimate business relationships must be "formal, documented, and formed in the ordinary course rather than for the purpose of evading" the ban, though journalists, students, workers, or lecturers with valid employment contracts or invitations are exempt.
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