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Trump’s new immigration order will affect celebrities who plan to visit U.S.

AFP-JIJI, AP, Reuters

U.S. President Donald Trump’s immigration clampdown, covering anyone at all from seven Muslim-majority countries, has affected famous people as well, from baseball player Yu Darvish to an Iranian filmmaker and a British Cabinet member.

Trump’s executive orders could make it impossible for Darvish’s father to watch him pitch this spring, SportsDay reported.

Friday’s orders include travelers with dual citizenship who are originally from one of the seven countries. Darvish’s father, Farsad, is a native of Iran, one of the seven countries on the list, and also holds Japanese citizenship.

Farsad Darvish has traveled to the U.S. on several occasions since his son signed with the Rangers in 2012.

The edict will not directly affect Darvish himself. Though he reportedly had dual citizenship as a child, he was required to choose between Iranian and Japanese citizenship by age 22, and chose Japanese as his nationality.

A politician from British Prime Minister Theresa May’s Conservative Party on Saturday revealed he would be barred from entering the U.S., presenting his boss with a diplomatic headache.

Iraqi-born Member of Parliament Nadhim Zahawi tweeted that he has had “confirmation that the order does apply to myself and my wife as we were both born in Iraq,” even though the pair have British passports. “A sad sad day to feel like a second class citizen! Sad day for the USA,” he added.

The revelation presents May with a diplomatic quandary, as she was the first international leader to meet the new U.S. president last Friday. They discussed the possibility of a swift trade deal after Britain leaves the European Union.

Following his meeting with May, Trump on Friday signed a sweeping executive order to suspend the arrival of refugees and impose tough new controls on travelers from Iran, Iraq, Libya, Somalia, Syria and Yemen.

May refused to condemn the order despite being repeatedly pressed at a news conference during a trip to Turkey, saying Washington is responsible for its own refugee policy.

However, the involvement of British citizens has ramped up the pressure from members of her own party to condemn the president’s stance, threatening the goodwill built up during her visit to Washington.

Iranian director Asghar Farhadi, whose feature film “The Salesman” is nominated for a best foreign-language Oscar, also has been affected by the ban.

In a statement released Saturday, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences expressed concern that Farhadi and his cast and crew may not be permitted to attend next month’s Oscars ceremony in Los Angeles.

Farhadi has not commented on his travel plans, but on Friday the president of the National Iranian American Council, Trita Parsi, tweeted: “Confirmed: Iran’s Asghar Farhadi won’t be let into the U.S. to attend Oscar’s.”

On Thursday, Iranian actress Taraneh Alidoosti, star of the “The Salesman,” tweeted she will boycott the Oscars — whether allowed to attend or not — in protest at Trump’s immigration policies, which she called “racist.”

U.S. green card holders from Syria and the six other Muslim-majority countries traveling outside the United States cannot automatically return home to the States and need to check with a U.S. Consulate to see whether they can return, senior U.S. administration officials said Saturday.

The new restrictions mean that even legal permanent residents who have passports from the seven countries have to be cleared back into the United States on a case-by-case basis, an official told reporters in a briefing.

“It’s being cleared on a case-by-case basis and being moved expeditiously,” the official said.