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Revised Travel Ban Executive Order Released
Trump yesterday (March 3) withdrew his original failed January Executive Order implementing a court-blocked travel ban against seven predominantly Muslim countries. He then released as revised order, again implementing 90-day hold on US entry but dropping Iraq from the list of countries.
The new order also specifically exempts permanent residents and current visa holders from the ban (permanent residents weren’t specifically excluded from the original order but enforcement against them was very quickly dropped by the administration – even before the courts took action). Also dropped from the new Order was language offering preferential status to persecuted religious minorities from these countries – something used as evidence of religious discrimination in the court filings seeking to overturn the original Order.
Another elimination from the earlier version: the indefinite bar to entry for individuals from Syria. Syrians are still barred, but the bar is for 120 days at a time, and would be reviewed before renewal. The 120-day bar on refugee admissions and the overall dramatic cuts to the annual number of refugees admitted remain unchanged.
We anticipate immediate legal challenges to the revised order – and we expect (and hope) these will be successful. The Trump campaign statements about a “Muslim ban,” a clear indication of the intent behind these orders, haven’t gone away with a few changes in language.