Portions of President Donald Trump’s travel ban will start being enforced at 8 p.m. Thursday. It applies to visa applicants from Syria, Iran, Yemen, Somalia, Sudan and Libya.
In Maine, there’s fear and confusion about what the ban might mean for its large Sudanese and Somali communities. State Department guidelines say visa applicants must have a “bona fide” relationship in the United States. It’s not quite clear what that means for students, workers or people working with nonprofit immigration agencies. But for families, the department says that the relationship should be “close.”
Sue Roche is the executive director of the immigrant legal advocacy project, a not-for-profit organization that provides legal help to immigrant communities in the state. She and Maine Things Considered host Nora Flaherty spoke about how the State Department is defining “bona fide” family relationships.
This story was originally published on July 29, 2017, at 4:52 p.m. ET.
