Travel banRevised ban excludes Iraq, current visa holders; no priority to religious minorities
President Donald Trump has signed a revised travel ban which will go into effect on 16 March. The revised executive order will halt entry to the United States for ninety days for people from six Muslim-majority nations who are seeking new visas. Iraq has been removed from the list of travel ban countries, and Syrian refugees will now be treated as other refugees. Religious minorities will not be given preferential treatment.
President Donald Trump has signed a revised travel ban which will go into effect on 16 March.
The revised executive order will halt entry to the United States for ninety days for people from six Muslim-majority nations who are seeking new visas.
Unlike the original executive order, the new order allows those with current visas to travel freely.
The new order, which Trump will sign today, was written to address legal issues with the original order, which was blocked by the courts.
Business Insider reports that the revised order is narrower not only in exempting those who already hold a visa – but also in removing Iraq from the list of countries affected.
The removal of Iraq from the list was the result of pressure from the Pentagon and State Department, which had urged the White House not to include Iraq in the ban in light of the role Iraq has played in in fighting ISIS.
The Departments of State, Defense, and Homeland Security were not consulted before the original ban was issued.
A fact sheet distributed to lawmakers, and which was obtained by the AP, said that negotiations resulted in Iraq agreeing to “increase cooperation with the US government on the vetting of its citizens applying for a visa to travel to the United States.”
Business Insider notes that Trump was not expected to hold a public signing ceremony for the new order.
Administration officials said that the new order, as was the case with the original order, aims to keep would-be terrorists out of the United States, as the government reviews the vetting system for refugees and visa applicants from regions affected by terrorism.
The fact sheet notes that DHS will conduct country reviews of the six countries targeted by the ban, and that these countries will have fifty days to comply with U.S. government requests to update or improve that information.
Trump’s order suspends the entire US refugee program for 120 days, but refugees already scheduled for travel by the State Department will be allowed entry. The United States will allow no more than 50,000 refugees into the country in fiscal year 2017.
Two other changes in the new order: Syrian refugees will be treated as other refugees, rather than be suspended indefinitely , and religious minorities – that is, non-Muslim refugees – will not be given a priority in admission to the United States.
