Revised travel ban goes into effect Thursday night

(KMSP) - The latest version of President Donald Trump's travel ban takes effect Thursday evening. This time, immigration lawyers don't expect as much trouble - at least not initially.

"I truly don't think we'll see the same type of chaos we saw the last time," said Regina Jefferies, and immigration attorney at the University of Minnesota Center for New Americans.

President Trump's revised executive order restricted travel from six predominantly Muslim countries, including Somalia, which many Minnesota refugees hail from.

Federal judges stopped the order, but this week the U.S. Supreme Court partially reinstated it with one big clarification. Justices banned travel visas to those who "lack any bona fide relationship with a person or entity in the United States."

That means an immediate family member, but not a grandparent. That's problematic for Jefferies.

"For example, refugees that our clinic has worked with include orphaned children who are in the custody and care of their grandparents coming over,” said Jefferies. “Those grandparents would be banned per the government's definition of close family." 

Also different with the new order, there will be fewer expected detentions at U.S. airports. Most of the travel ban is now in the hands of the state department overseas.

"I think what we anticipate seeing is more of the enforcement happening abroad at consulates where individuals are being denied visas in the first instance to be able to come over and make that initial entry," she said.

As for refugees coming to Minnesota, Jane Graupman of the International Institute of Minnesota says that last year 72 percent of them had a close family tie here that would apply under the Supreme Court's current order.

It's those extended family ties, such as grandparents, that are likely to tested in a flurry of court cases, which is what the dissenting Supreme Court justices predicted would happen.