Grandmas need not apply: Trump's vicious new Muslim ban hurts families

The new rules for deciding which people Trump deems worthy of entry, and which ones he does not, are stunning in their cruelty.

According to the State Department, previously approved visas will not be revoked, but new applicants will have to meet arbitrary criteria for eligibility — specifically, proving a relationship with a family member in the United States.

But not just any family member.

Grandparents, grandchildren, aunts, uncles, nieces, nephews, cousins, brothers- and sisters-in-law, fiancées/fiancés or other extended family members are not considered to be close relationships, according to the guidelines that were issued in a cable sent to all US embassies and consulates late on Wednesday.

It is quite a statement when a president from the Republican Party — the self-proclaimed “pro-family” party — is declaring that grandmothers do not count as close family.

And it’s quite a reversal from the family who inherited the White House before Trump moved in. When Barack Obama was elected president, he, unlike Trump, brought his wife and his children with him to the White House. He also brought his children’s grandmother.

This administration clearly values grandmothers and other family differently.

When Trump first introduced his draconian Muslim ban, chaos ensued around the country. Citizens were detained because of their names, their skin color, or the fact that they had traveled to one of the restricted countries.

In the lawsuits that followed, court after court determined that despite the spin from the White House, the ban was very much intended to discriminate against Muslims. Trump himself undermined his own spokespeople and lawyers by declaring on Twitter that of course it was a travel ban.

Nonetheless, the conservative-controlled Supreme Court partially lifted the stay on the ban, and now Trump’s administration is once again finding the most heinous and harmful ways to codify the bigotry that was such a prominent plank in his platform.