MINNEAPOLIS — At 7:00 p.m. Thursday evening, parts of President Donald Trump’s travel ban will go into effect around the country.
Earlier this week, the United States Supreme Court made the decision to formally hear Trump’s travel ban in court; but its oral arguments are scheduled for October.
However, the court ruled unanimously that parts of the President’s revised travel ban be implemented.
The revised ban, cites Obama-era information to identify countries with high terrorism risks to the United States – Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria, and Yemen.
The Supreme Court ruling allowed the Trump travel ban to go into effect, but with a caveat allowing entry to those who can prove “any bona fide relationship with a person or entity in the United States” per the court ruling.
“We expect it to be business as usual,” a senior administration official said.
Refugees who have travel plans will also be allowed to travel through July 6. Those who have visa appointments before the 7:00 p.m. deadline, will not have to follow the new rules, but visa interviews scheduled after will have to meet the new guidelines.
“Today’s decision by the Supreme Court ignores the anti-Muslim bigotry that is at the heart of the travel ban executive orders and will inevitably embolden Islamophobes in the administration to expand efforts to target the Muslim community with unconstitutional and counterproductive policies,” Nihad Awad, Executive Director of the National Center on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) said in a press release. “It also ignores the almost-unanimous rejection of the Muslim ban by lower courts due to its religious intolerance and racial animus.”
DNC Deputy Chair and Minnesota Rep. Keith Ellison seemed to blame the addition of Supreme Court Justice Neil Gorsuch for the reinstated travel ban.
“With the addition of Neil Gorsuch, the Supreme Court has greenlighted portions of Donald Trump’s Muslim ban to temporarily go into effect. Unfortunately, this Supreme Court has set the cause of ‘liberty and justice for all’ backwards,” Ellison said in a public statement. “The Trump Court is reminiscent of the Supreme Courts which delivered the Korematsu decision, which upheld Japanese internment, the Plessy v. Ferguson Court, which upheld the doctrine of Separate but Equal, and Dred Scott v. Sanford, which declared Blacks have ‘no rights which Whites are bound to respect’.”
All nine justices on the bench voted to reinstate parts of the travel ban.
However, senior administration officials stressed the point that cases would be taken on an individual basis and people would not be denied solely because they come from one of the six countries.
“There is no quota,” one senior administration official said.
In Minnesota, Minneapolis – St. Paul International Airport (MSP) will likely see no real lasting effects from tonight’s travel ban implementation.
“We have no direct flights from the nations included in the new regulations, however, so it is unlikely there will be impacts at our airport,” Patrick Hogan, Director of Public Affairs for MSP told Alpha News. “The new travel regulations will be enforced by the U.S. Customs and Border Protection Agency, not by local airport officials. Our focus as the operator of Minneapolis-St. Paul International is on ensuring that, in the unlikely event anyone is detained by federal officials at MSP, we provide comfortable accommodations in which their families can wait while the issue is resolved.”
Minnesota is home to one of the largest immigrant and refugee populations in the country.
Preya Samsundar
Preya Samsundar was born and raised in Minneapolis, MN. She graduated from the University of Minnesota - Twin Cities this Spring with a B.A. in Political Science and Sociology, with a minor in Strategic Communications. Preya has previously worked on several State Campaign Races.
