NATION/WORLD
Tuesday, June 27, 2017
East Oregonian
Page 7A
ASSOCIATED PRESS Q&A
Murkiness follows Supreme Court’s action on travel ban
By GENE JOHNSON
Associated Press
SEATTLE — On again,
off again, off again, off again
and now, partly back on:
That’s the peculiar route of
President Donald Trump’s
travel ban after a Supreme
Court decision Monday
allowing a limited version to
take effect.
The high court said the
president’s 90-day ban on
visitors from Iran, Libya,
Somalia, Sudan, Syria and
Yemen can be enforced
pending arguments sched-
uled for October as long as
those visitors lack a “credible
claim of a bona fide relation-
ship with a person or entity in
the United States.”
But much remains murky:
What exactly is a bona fide
relationship? Who gets to
decide? Will the travel ban
even still be an issue by the
time the justices hear argu-
ments?
Here’s a look at some key
issues surrounding Trump’s
executive order:
Who’s the winner?
After the lower courts
found the travel ban uncon-
stitutionally biased against
Muslims and contrary to
federal immigration law,
Trump hailed the Supreme
Court’s decision as a “clear
victory for our national
security.”
It was a legal win for
the administration — to an
extent. Three justices —
Clarence Thomas, Samuel
Alito and Trump appointee
Neil Gorsuch — said they
would have allowed the
travel ban to take effect as
written.
But the other six kept
blocking it as it applies to
those traveling to the U.S.
on employment, student or
family immigrant visas as
well as other cases where the
traveler can show a “bona
fide” connection to the U.S.
That’s no minor excep-
tion, according to immigrant
groups, who say relatively
few people come to the U.S.
from the affected countries
without such close ties.
Likewise, the justices said,
refugees can travel to the U.S.
if they demonstrate those
AP Photo/Ted S. Warren
Travelers wait in line near an Emirates ticket counter at the Seattle-Tacoma International Airport Monday in Se-
attle. The U.S. Supreme Court said Monday that President Donald Trump’s travel ban on visitors from Iran, Libya,
Somalia, Sudan, Syria and Yemen can be enforced if those visitors lack a “credible claim of a bona fide relation-
ship with a person or entity in the United States,” and that justices will hear full arguments in October 2017.
connections — contrary to
the part of Trump’s executive
order suspending the nation’s
refugee program.
“This decision is a true
compromise,” said Kari
Hong, an immigration law
expert at Boston College
Law School. “It is true that
the travel ban is allowed to go
into effect, but the Supreme
Court substantially narrowed
who could be denied entry.”
Immigrant rights advo-
cates welcomed the ruling for
showing that the president’s
authority on immigration is
not absolute and ensuring
people with connections in
the U.S. will be allowed to
enter. But they said they are
worried about other immi-
grants, including refugees
who may be desperate for
help but lack U.S. relations.
But what’s bona fide?
The court’s majority laid
out the “bona fide” relation-
ships it had in mind. For indi-
viduals, a close family rela-
tionship is required: A spouse
or a mother-in-law would
be permitted. So would a
worker who accepted a job
from an American company,
AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite
People leave the Supreme Court in Washington, Mon-
day as justices issued their final rulings for the term.
a student enrolled at a U.S.
university or a lecturer
invited to address a U.S.
audience.
What’s not bona fide?
A relationship created for
purposes of avoiding the
travel ban, the justices said.
“For example, a nonprofit
group devoted to immigra-
tion issues may not contact
foreign nationals from the
designated countries, add
them to client lists, and then
secure their entry by claiming
injury from their exclusion,”
the court wrote.
Still, Thomas, Alito and
Gorsuch found that guidance
confusing and unworkable.
“Today’s
compromise
will burden executive offi-
cials with the task of deciding
— on peril of contempt —
whether individuals from the
six affected nations who wish
to enter the United States
have a sufficient connection
to a person or entity in this
country,” Thomas wrote.
London’s fire symptomatic of larger issues
LONDON (AP) — The
deaths of 79 people in a
London apartment tower
have triggered emergency
inspections, evacuations and
soul searching among British
officials who failed to prevent
the tragedy.
But fire-safety experts say
governments and builders
around the world should
take notice, because the fire
at Grenfell Tower is just the
latest in a string of deadly
blazes that demonstrate
how building regulations
have failed to keep up with
changing materials and cuts
in inspections and oversight
mean problems aren’t spotted
until it is too late.
The Ghost Ship fire in
Oakland, California, made
headlines in December,
when 36 people were killed
in a warehouse that had been
illegally converted into living
spaces and a music venue. In
September, 33 people died in
a fire at a packaging plant in
Bangladesh.
“They are a collective
example of how, either inten-
tionally or accidentally, the
fire prevention and protection
system has been broken,”
said Jim Pauley, president of
the National Fire Protection
Association, which develops
fire codes used in the U.S. and
around the world. “A system
that the public believes exists
and counts on for their safety
— through complacency,
bad policy and placing the
economics of construction
over safety — has let them
down.”
The aftermath of the Gren-
fell Tower fire shows that the
faults that led to the disaster
are not isolated.
The government is scram-
bling to test panels similar
to those used at Grenfell
Tower, and has found at
least 75 buildings covered in
similarly flammable material.
Thousands of people have
been evacuated from four
high-rises in north London
after inspectors found fire-
safety problems, including
faulty fire doors. The city
Peter Byrne/PA via AP
Workers remove cladding from Whitebeam Court, in
Pendleton, Manchester on Monday.
of Birmingham has decided
to install sprinklers in all its
public housing towers — four
years after coroners investi-
gating deadly fires suggested
this be done throughout the
country.
John Bonney, a former
chief officer for the Hamp-
shire Fire and Rescue Service,
regrets that it took a disaster
to trigger action. Seven
years ago, Bonney vowed to
improve conditions after two
of his firefighters died in a
blaze in a high-rise apartment
building in Southampton.
“I call it tombstone
legislation — it appears after
significant losses of life,”
Bonney said.
The residents of Grenfell
Tower didn’t realize the
danger they faced when they
went to bed June 13.
A fire that started in a
refrigerator just after midnight
quickly spread throughout the
24-story tower. As firefighters
arrived, flames were shooting
up the outside of the building,
trapping residents inside.
“How is that even
possible?!” one incredulous
firefighter asked in a cell-
phone video captured as his
engine approached the tower.
While the investigation is
still underway, fire experts
believe part of the answer
may be the aluminum
composite material recently
attached to the outside of the
building.
The material, essentially
two thin sheets of aluminum
around a layer of insulation,
has been used for decades, but
its popularity has grown in
recent years because it offers
a relatively inexpensive way
to save energy and beautify
buildings.
Experts have warned about
risks posed by the panels for
years because some varieties
use highly flammable plastic
foam insulation, which can
rapidly spread fires once it
ignites, as previously seen in
Australia, China and Dubai.
It also could lead to legal
challenges amid the “struggle
to determine what exactly
constitutes a ‘bona fide
relationship,’ who precisely
has a ‘credible claim’ to that
relationship, and whether
the claimed relationship was
formed ‘simply to avoid’” the
travel ban,” he wrote.
More airport chaos?
Trump’s initial travel ban,
issued without warning on a
Friday in January, brought
chaos and protests to airports
nationwide as travelers from
seven targeted countries
were barred even if they had
prior permission to come to
the U.S. The State Depart-
ment canceled up to 60,000
visas but later reversed that
decision.
A federal judge in Seattle
blocked the order a week
later, and Trump eventually
revised it, dropping Iraq from
the list and including reasons
people might be exempted,
such as a need for medical
treatment.
The limited ban will take
effect Thursday morning,
the State Department said
Monday.
Airports may be less
likely to see the same sorts
of demonstrations given the
advance warning, that those
with prior permission to
enter are not affected and the
months people have had to
reach the U.S. since the first
ban was blocked.
Matt
Adams,
legal
director of the Seattle-based
Northwest Immigrant Rights
Project, which filed one of
many lawsuits against the
policy, said he still expects
some confusion at airports,
at least initially. Eventually,
people likely will be barred
from boarding planes to the
U.S., he said.
“With many groups, it’s
clear-cut from the type of
visa: Anyone coming in on
family visa or employment
visa, by their terms it’s clear
they have a bona fide rela-
tionship,” he said. “What’s
more difficult is if you’re
coming in on a tourist visa.
I think you’re going to be
going through a lengthy
inquiry, and we’ll have to see
how that plays out.”
Next legal steps
The Supreme Court
would not hear arguments on
the legality of the ban until
October. But by then, a key
provision may have expired,
possibly making the review
unnecessary.
That’s because Trump’s
order only sought to halt
travelers from the six coun-
tries for 90 days, to give the
administration time to review
the screening procedures for
those visa applicants.
The administration has
argued that the ban would
not go into effect until
court orders blocking each
provision were lifted. The
Supreme Court has asked
for more arguments about
whether the challenges to
the travel restriction became
moot in June.
David Levine, a professor
at the University of Califor-
nia’s Hastings College of
Law, said the justices likely
will not sidestep a ruling on
the executive order on those
grounds.
“The underlying issue
of presidential power is too
important and too likely to
occur in the future,” he said.
Support for gay marriage surges,
even among groups once wary
NEW YORK (AP) — In
the two years since same-sex
marriage was legalized
nationwide, support for it
has surged even among
groups that recently were
broadly opposed, according
to a new national survey.
The Pew Research Center
survey found that for the first
time, a majority of blacks
and baby boomers support
allowing gays and lesbians
to wed. It said Republicans
are now split almost evenly,
a marked shift from 2013,
when 61 percent opposed
gay marriage.
Pew’s
survey
was
conducted by telephone
among 2,504 adults across
the U.S. from June 8 to 18.
It was released Monday, the
second anniversary of the
U.S. Supreme Court’s historic
ruling on same-sex marriage.
In the aftermath of that
ruling, there were some
flare-ups of defiance. A
county clerk in Kentucky,
Kim Davis, refused to issue
marriage licenses to same-sex
couples. Alabama’s chief
justice, Roy Moore, ordered
probate judges to stop issuing
such licenses.
But such acts of resistance
have largely faded way,
and same-sex marriage is
now treated as a routine
occurrence across the U.S.
According to the Williams
Institute at UCLA School of
Law, there are now more than
547,000 same-sex married
couples in the U.S., including
at least 157,000 couples who
married in the past two years.
Some staunch opponents
of gay marriage are now
focusing their efforts on trying
to provide legal protections to
civil servants, merchants and
other business people who do
not want to provide services
to same-sex couples.
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