A FEDERAL judge in Hawaii yesterday ruled that grandparents, grandchildren and other relatives of people in the United States should be exempt from the Trump administration’s travel ban targeting travellers from six majority-Muslim countries.

The decision by judge Derrick Watson is a victory for opponents of the ban, which the Trump administration said was necessary to keep out terrorists.

The US Supreme Court had allowed part of the ban to go into effect on June 30, putting an end, at least temporarily, to five months of skirmishes in lower courts.

Specifically, the court allowed a 90-day ban on visitors from Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria and Yemen, and a 120-day ban on refugees, with exceptions for people with “close family relationships” in the US.

The Trump administration defined “close family relationships” to include parents, spouses, children, fiancees and siblings.

But, Watson found that “the government’s narrowly defined list finds no support in the careful language of the Supreme Court or even in the immigration statutes on which the government relies”.

“Common sense, for instance, dictates that close family members be defined to include grandparents.

“Indeed, grandparents are the epitome of close family members. The government’s definition excludes them. That simply cannot be.”

Watson ordered Homeland Security and the State Department not to enforce the ban on “grandparents, grandchildren, brothers-in-law, sisters-in-law, aunts, uncles, nieces, nephews and cousins of persons in the US”. – AFP, July 14, 2017.