WASHINGTON —
President
Donald Trump will soon release a "more streamlined version" of a
presidential order banning immigrants from seven Muslim-majority nations, but
it will be better implemented and avoid the chaos that resulted from an earlier
attempt to restrict foreign travelers arriving in the U.S., Homeland Security
Secretary John Kelly said Saturday.
Speaking
at the annual Munich Security Conference in Germany, during a panel discussion
on combating terrorism, Kelly said the new version of the travel order will not
prevent foreign nationals with either work visas or "green card"
permanent residency permits from re-entering the United States. Nor will it
affect foreign travelers already flying to U.S. ports of entry when the order
takes effect, he added.
Trump
will "make sure that there's no one caught in the system of moving from
overseas to our airports" during the travel ban, Kelly said.
The new
immigration order could come as early as Tuesday, U.S. news reports suggested,
and Trump himself has confirmed it will be issued during the coming week.
Original
ban blocked
The original travel ban, which was
set aside by U.S. courts, was issued January 27. It was a security measure
meant to prevent attacks by Islamist militants, White House officials said.
Trump's executive order barred entry to the United States for at least 90 days
by people from Iran, Iraq, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria and Yemen. It also excluded all
refugees seeking resettlement in the U.S. for 120 days, except those from Syria,
who were banned indefinitely.
The abrupt implementation of the ban, which was enforced just
hours after it was signed, caught many officials and travelers unaware, leading
to chaos and protests at international airports in the U.S. and abroad. Some
people from the targeted countries were detained, and others were sent back to
their home countries.
Federal judges suspended the ban this month on the grounds that
it illegally targeted Muslims and had been put into effect without due care or
preparation.
The president said Thursday that he would announce a new,
revised executive order on immigration during the coming week.
'Temporary
pause'
Kelly, a retired Marine Corps general, said the original order
was designed as a "temporary pause" to allow him to "see where
our immigration and vetting system has gaps" that attackers could exploit.
The new order will seek to iron out some of the difficulties in the version
currently held up by the courts, he added.
The homeland security chief is in charge of one of the largest
government departments, supervising all customs, immigration and border patrol
agencies the government operates, as well as the Drug Enforcement
Administration, the Coast Guard, the U.S. Secret Service, which protects the
president, and other security agencies that protect federal property and
foreign dignitaries.
"The president is contemplating releasing a tighter, more
streamlined version of the first [order]," Kelly said Saturday in Munich.
"And I will have an opportunity to work [on] a rollout plan, in particular
to make sure that there's no one in a sense caught in the system of moving from
overseas to our airports."
He said "it's a good assumption" that green-card
residency permit holders would be allowed in, as they eventually were a few
days after the original order.
Same
states affected
For foreign nationals from the countries in question who already
hold valid U.S. entry visas, Kelly said, "if they're in motion from some
distant land to the United States, when they arrive they will be allowed
in." The agency chief added, however, that there would be a "short
phase-in period" to ensure affected travelers in other countries were not
allowed to board airliners prematurely, to evade the travel ban.
A draft of the replacement
executive order shows the administration aims to put restrictions on citizens
of the same seven Muslim-majority countries covered by the initial order,
according to The
Wall Street Journal, which
cited an internal State Department memo. Kelly also mentioned "seven
nations" during his discussions in Europe.
The replacement order could be
issued as early as Tuesday, the Journal reported, citing a U.S.
government official.
Separately, the Trump administration also has asked the 9th U.S.
Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco to withdraw its earlier ruling that
temporarily suspended the travel ban, because a new, superseding order is about
to be issued.
Protecting
the US
"In so doing, the president will clear the way for
immediately protecting the country rather than pursuing further potentially
time-consuming litigation," the Justice Department said in its filing.
Government attorneys have stated the Trump administration has
the authority to institute a travel ban to protect the nation's security, and
they have rejected criticism that restricting travelers only from
majority-Muslim countries amounts to a ban on Muslims entering the U.S.
The U.S. Constitution forbids the government from establishing
an official religion or taking actions that promote or inhibit religion.
Trump's order specified that refugees who were members of a religious minority
in their country and facing persecution would still be eligible for admission
to the U.S. This would apply to non-Muslims from the seven targeted countries.
While campaigning for the presidency last year, Trump originally
supported banning all Muslims worldwide from entering the U.S., but he later
altered his plan to target countries with links to terrorism.
Some
material in this report came from Reuters.
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