Summary: A new travel ban will take effect on March 16.
President Donald Trump’s travel ban is getting a makeover. Today, it was announced that our 45th president has signed a revised version of the controversial travel ban from earlier this year, and this new executive order is expected to be pared down from the original.
The order, which will take effect on March 16, said that people from Sudan, Syria, Iran, Libya, Somalia, and Yemen who do not have valid visas will not be allowed into the United States for 90 days.
Iraq was included in January’s ban but has been removed from this edition. Trump’s counselor, Kellyanne Conway, said that Iraq was removed because of their enhanced screening procedures, and an Iraqi spokesperson said that the country’s removal sends a positive message that the two are working together now to fight the terrorist group, ISIS.
The original ban drew national ire because visa and green card holders were being denied entry into the country. In response to that, this new order explicitly states that legal permanent residents and current visa holders will not be affected by the travel ban.
“You should not see any chaos, or alleged chaos, at airports. There will not be people stopped at airports because of this order,” a senior Department of Homeland Security official told Buzzfeed.
The original ban was nicknamed a “Muslim ban” by the left because it gave leniency to refugees with Christian backgrounds and targetted travelers from Muslim-majority nations, but the updated order has removed the religious provision.
As part of the executive order, the refugee admission program will also be suspended starting March 16. The suspension will last 120 days and will limit admissions to 50,000 refugees for 2017.
Attorney Omar Jadway of the ACLU told Buzzfeed that this new executive order may have changes but is still as unconstitutional as the first one.
“While scaled back, the new ban is, at its core, the same unconstitutional attempt to enact religious discrimination as the first one was. Once we have the ban in hand, we will take the appropriate steps in our ongoing litigation to prevent it from going into effect,” Jadwat said.
House Speaker Paul Ryan said that this new order advances our country’s goal of “protecting the homeland.”
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Photo courtesy of CNN
Source: Buzzfeed
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