US Supreme Court allows Trump’s refugee ban to proceed

By Michael Hernandez

WASHINGTON (AA) – President Donald Trump’s order banning the entry of refugees can proceed ahead of a federal appeal, the Supreme Court ruled Wednesday.

The top court’s 6-3 order, which could affect thousands of refugees, stays a district court’s decision to upend Trump’s effort to bar them from entering the U.S.

But the Supreme Court is leaving in place the Hawaii court’s watering down of visa restrictions for six Muslim-majority countries that the Trump administration has said are aimed at securing the nation.

The justices said in their three-sentence order that the Ninth Circuit Court in San Francisco, California, should now hear the Trump administration’s appeal.

Last week, Hawaii District Court Judge Derrick Watson ruled the administration must allow in grandparents, grandchildren, aunts, uncles, nieces, nephews, brothers-in-law, sisters-in-law and cousins after the administration initially excluded them in a list of relations it said met the top court’s criteria that allowed parts of the travel ban to proceed.

Watson also ruled that the government must allow refugees working with a resettlement agency to enter the U.S.

The ruling prompted the Trump administration to appeal, and three justices -- Clarence Thomas, Samuel Alito and Trump-appointee Neil Gorsuch -- would have stayed Watson’s order in its entirety.

The Supreme Court is expected to hear arguments on Trump's travel ban in October after allowing parts of it to go into effect in late June.

It said at the time those from the six designated Muslim-majority countries with “bona fide” relationships to U.S. individuals or organizations should be exempted from the ban.

Trump’s executive order has come under widespread criticism, including from federal judges, who deem it an unconstitutional effort to ban Muslim immigration.