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Expert: State Department Definition of 'Close Family' for Travel Ban is Too Narrow

June 29, 2017 (1 min read)

Carol Morello, Washington Post, June 29, 2017 - "Visitors from six predominantly Muslim nations will not be granted visas unless they have a very close family tie to someone already in the United States or an entity like a workplace or university, under new guidelines the State Department said become effective Thursday night. A cable sent to consular officials worldwide Wednesday provided a narrow definition of close family: a parent, spouse, child, an adult son or daughter, son-in-law, daughter-in-law or sibling, as well as stepfamily relationships. However, it explicitly excluded other family relationships: grandparents, grandchildren, aunts, uncles, nieces, nephews, cousins, brothers-in-law and sisters-in-law, fiances and other “extended” family relations. ... Cornell University Law School professor Stephen Yale-Loehr, who has written volumes of legal books on immigration law, said more than half of all refugees have no close family ties in the United States. Among past refugees who would be barred from entering today, he said, are the Lost Boys of Sudan and children orphaned by famine and war. “Similarly, why can a stepsister visit the United States but not a grandmother?” he said. “The State Department should vet visa applicants on a case-by-case basis for terrorism concerns, not impose overly broad categories that prevent innocent people from coming to this country.”

- Cornell Law Prof. Stephen W. Yale-Loehr

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