The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) is calling the Trump administration’s fiercely litigated travel ban a “Muslim ban” and is vowing to file new legal challenges against implementation guidance developed by the Departments of State and Justice.
The ban prohibits migrants from six countries — Syria, Sudan, Somalia, Libya, Iran and Yemen — from entering the country without an established, significant connection to the United States.
The U.S. Supreme Court stayed several lower court rulings barring enforcement of the president’s order Monday, but provided an exemption for foreign nationals possessing a “close” and “bona fide relationship with a person or entity in the United States.”
The State Department and the Department of Justice developed guidance for U.S. consular officials concerning the definition of “bona fide relationship.” According to a State Department cable obtained by the Associated Press, visa applicants from the six countries named in the order must now prove a relationship with a parent, spouse, child, adult son or daughter, son-in-law, daughter-in-law or sibling already residing in the United States in order to claim exemption from the ban.
CAIR opposes the guidance.
“By arbitrarily dividing American Muslims from their grandparents and other close relatives overseas, the Trump administration’s new rules violate the Supreme Court’s decision,” CAIR National Executive Director Nihad Awad said in a statement sent to The Daily Caller.
“These illogical rules must not stand, nor should any other part of the discriminatory and unconstitutional Muslim ban,” Niwad also said.
“We call on the Trump administration to withdraw these irrational guidelines, as well as the entire Muslim ban. We can protect our nation without harming its values or reputation,” Lena Masri, CAIR’s national litigation director added. “We will not hesitate to file a legal challenge to any violations of the court’s decision.”
Earlier this week, CAIR said the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision to allow the travel ban to take effect “ignores the Islamophobic origins of the policy and emboldens Islamophobes in the Trump administration.”
CAIR, America’s largest Muslim civil rights group, has introduced a smartphone app which summarizes U.S. civil rights and which allows users to report allegations of bias and hate crimes.
The advocacy group is also urging people who know someone barred from entry into the United States under the six-nation travel ban to contact its civil rights department.
In 2009, CAIR was listed by the U.S. government as an unindicted co-conspirator in a scheme that provided funding to the terror group Hamas.
In 2014, the United Arab Emirates officially designated 83 groups as terrorist organizations, including CAIR. (RELATED: UAE Designates Two American Muslim Groups As Terrorist Organizations)
The civil rights group was also officially a partner organization for the Women’s March on Washington. (RELATED: Thousands Of Women Will Wear Pink, Knitted ‘Pussy Power Hats’ To Protest Trump)
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