Trump defies Supreme Court ruling to ban all refugees

Several courts have shot down his executive orders banning travel from predominantly Muslim countries, citing Trump’s own words and tweets as evidence of his inherently bigoted intention.

When the Supreme Court partially lifted the stay on Trump’s executive order in June, Trump’s State Department immediately issued draconian rules to exploit the court’s exceptions for immigrants with a “bona fide relationship” with someone already in the United States. Under Trump’s newest rules, grandparents are not considered immediate enough family.

But even that wasn’t enough for Trump, apparently. So now his State Department has issued a guidance letter with even greater restrictions that apply to all refugees, without any exceptions for family members. As BuzzFeed explains:

But the State Department’s guidance says that the government will not issue any new Advanced Booking Notices — the documents that agencies say are required for all refugees to enter the US — “for cases with or without the required bona fide relationship to a person or entity in the United States” until they “clarify verification procedures” in the “very near future.”

Unsurprisingly, there has yet to be any further clarification from the State Department.

Becca Heller, director of the legal aid group International Refugee Assistance Project, told BuzzFeed that the latest guidance is “a full ban” on refugees.

“That seems like a pretty blatant violation of the SCOTUS order to me,” she said, adding, “I find it really upsetting, terrifying and illegal.”

Trump’s initial executive order sent the country into a state of chaos, with immigrants and even citizens detained at airports across the nation. That Trump and his administration would impose restrictions on some of the most vulnerable people in the world, fleeing the exact same terrorist groups America is fighting, is horrific.

Sadly, however, it isn’t surprising. Trump made his disdain for immigrants perfectly clear during the campaign, and it has been a priority for him, with ICE agents cracking down on undocumented workers and even their children, staking out courts to round up victims of domestic violence and detaining and deporting even the supposedly “good” immigrants.

ICE agents even detained a Colombian immigrant to came to the United States 30 years ago as a teenager and suffered serious health effects from volunteering in the recovery at Ground Zero after 9/11.

This administration’s cruelty and lack of compassion is limitless, and Trump’s determined not to let anything — even the highest court in the land — stand in the way of his hateful agenda.