begin quote from:
Administration set to roll out revised travel ban order
New Trump travel ban order nearing completion
Story highlights
- First executive order travel ban issued January 27 was blocked in the courts and resulted in chaos at international airports
- New order expected to not impact green card holders
Washington (CNN)The
Trump administration is planning to roll out as early as this week a
revised executive order on immigration that the President says will
"protect our people" while at the same time pass muster with courts that
halted an earlier version.
Sources
said the new order will clarify a point that caused confusion the first
time around: The executive order will not impact green card holders.
"The
President is contemplating releasing a tighter, more streamlined
version of the first executive order," Homeland Security Secretary John
Kelly said at the Munich Security Conference over the weekend.
Acknowledging the rushed rollout of the previous order that caused chaos
in airports across the country and widespread demonstrations, Kelly
said that officials are working on a "phase in" period for parts of the
order to take effect.
The
new order is also expected to address concerns of the 9th Circuit
federal appeals court, which blocked the original order, that travelers'
due process rights were not being respected by giving detailed notice
of restrictions for those with current or pending visas. Kelly said the
goal was "to make sure that there's no one, in a sense, caught in the
system of moving from overseas to our airports, which happened on the
first release" of the order.
Trump's
original order, issued a week into his presidency, barred citizens of
seven Muslim-majority countries -- Iraq, Syria, Iran, Libya, Somalia,
Sudan and Yemen -- from entering the US for 90 days, all refugees for
120 days and refugees from Syria indefinitely.
"The
new order is going to be very much tailored to what I consider to be a
very bad decision," Trump said during his White House news conference
Thursday, referring to the courts' blocking of its implementation.
Asked
for comment on the possible order, White House spokesman Michael Short
said, "The only thing that matters is what the President signs. When we
have something final to announce on that front we will let you know."
Scope of new order
A
source familiar with the process said that the new order was still
being drafted over the weekend. The source said that it was also likely
to address religious discrimination issues by modifying or removing one
section of the original order. That section, 5 (b), said that the
Secretary of Homeland Security, "is further directed to make changes, to
the extent permitted by law, to prioritize refugee claims made by
individuals on the basis of religious-based persecution, provided that
the religion of the individual is a minority religion in the
individual's country of nationality."
One
sticking point remained whether existing non-immigrant visas would be
revoked. A source familiar with the discussions said the Justice
Department preferred to not revoke existing non-immigrant visas, while
the White House and Department of Homeland Security were considering
doing so.
"[I]f they're on an
airplane and inbound, they will be allowed to enter the country," Kelly
said. "And this, again, is just a pause until we look at a number of
countries -- seven in particular -- and look at their vetting processes,
how reliable they are -- and I will tell you right now they're not very
reliable."
Another area of concern
for critics remains special immigrant visas, a class of visas given to
Afghans and Iraqis who helped the US military in the wars there,
including interpreters.
Rep. Adam
Kinzinger, a Republican from Illinois who served in Iraq and
Afghanistan, told CNN's "New Day" on Monday that he fears that the new
order would ban even those individuals from entering if they're not
green card holders.
"I hope they're not on the new executive order, but it sounds like they may be," Kinzinger said.
Still
up in the air, over the weekend, was a different section that suspended
the entry of nationals of Syria as refugees. According to the source,
there are opposing views on whether to exclude or modify the provision.
Lawsuits expected
Challengers to the original executive order are anxiously awaiting the new one.
Immigration
attorney David Leopold argued that the very fact that a new order is
being drafted "is a clear admission by the Trump administration that the
President directly violated immigration law and the Constitution when
he ordered a sweeping ban on Muslims and Syrian refugees in late
January."
Lee Gelernt, an attorney
with the ACLU who is challenging the order in New York courts, said he
expects the new order will exempt green card holders, but warned that he
expected other aspects of the new order to present legal problems. "If
the only real change is to exempt green card holders, than the legal
challenges will continue full force," he said.
"This
debate is critical both legally and policy-wise," said Leon Fresco, an
immigration attorney and former Obama administration Justice official.
"Obviously, it is important not to run afoul of existing court orders
precluding cancellation of visas. But even more importantly, it sends a
disconcerting signal to all potential foreign visitors when the US
cancels visas for entire groups on short notice rather than canceling
visas due to the actions of individual visa holders."
Consulting Congress?
One
of lawmakers' major concerns with the initial rollout of the order was
that they were not consulted. When Kelly testified in front of the House
Homeland Security Committee, he faced repeated requests for assurances
that members of Congress would be considered when drafting further
executive orders.
"You have an
extreme vetting proposal that didn't get the vetting it should have
had," Republican Sen. Rob Portman of Ohio told CNN's Jake Tapper on
Sunday's "State of the Union" last month. "As the result, in the
implementation, we've seen some problems."
But
despite a pledge from the White House to consult legislators in
crafting policies, multiple Hill sources said they remained out of the
loop on the order as of Monday morning.
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