Lawyers and protesters were at the ready at Los Angeles International Airport as a revised travel ban for six majority Muslim nations was reinstated Thursday.
Lawyers, hoping to avoid the chaos and confusion that occurred when the original ban was issued in January, had set up an area at the airport for people worried that the revised ban, reinstated by the Supreme Court, might impact their loved ones.
"People who are entering with already validly issued visas should have no problem entering at all," said immigration lawyer Talia Inlender. "But we are concerned people are going to be stopped and inappropriately questioned and perhaps turned away."
The lawyers said the exceptions to the ban - which includes those connected to an immediate family member or institution, like a school - may prove problematic.
"A grandparent...is not considered a close family relation, so somebody who's coming to visit an ill or dying grandparent - at least under what they've told us how they're going to implement (the ban) - is not going to be permitted to come in," Inlender said.
There were mixed feelings about the new ban, which also bans refuges from the country for 120 days, among those waiting at the airport for overseas friends and loved ones.
Anthony Dockery, a pastor, said he'd like the country to invite refugees, but that there needs to be "a balance" between altruism and safety concerns.
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Norco resident Arianna Myers, however, did not fully buy the safety argument. "I think there safety concerns, of course, but I think there are safety concerns here in our country, as well," she said.
The Supreme Court plans to hear arguments on the travel ban when it reconvenes in October.
