March 7, 2017 – The Donald Trump immigration ban has taken another turn as the US president signed a new executive order banning USA immigration from six Muslim majority countries .
Signed on March 6, 2017, the new order revokes the old one, which created chaos when it was signed on January 27, 2017, with the key difference being that it drops Iraq from the list of countries banned.
The new Trump immigration ban means that:
Foreign nationals from Sudan, Syria, Iran, Libya, Somalia and Yemen are banned from USA immigration for 90 days.- The U.S. refugee program is suspended for 120 days.
Officials appear to have learned lessons from the chaos surround the original Trump immigration ban, with a key provision of the new order being that it does not come into effect until March 16, 2017.
The officials admit this phase-in period is directly aimed at avoiding some of the problems caused by the immediacy of the original order.
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Another key difference is that the new ban does not specifically target Syrian refugees. Under the old version, all Syrian refugees were barred indefinitely.
The new Trump ban is also very clear on who is exempt, including U.S. citizens and permanent residents (also call green card holders), current visa holders and dual nationals. The order also allows for entry to be allowed on a case by case basis.
This version of the ban came with a Homeland Security fact sheet, which was missing from the original order.
Application to Canada
Permanent residents of Canada with citizenship from any of the six countries targeted by the latest executive order can explicitly be denied entry to the United States. This is an important difference from the first order. Under the revised ban, landed immigrants from Canada must apply for a visa waiver, which may be granted on a discretionary case-by-case basis. Generally, visa waiver applications are submitted to a US Consulate. Generally, a visa waiver is issued to an individual who proves that denying entry would cause undue hardship and that admission of the foreign national would not pose a threat to the national security of the United States.
The chaos caused by the original order was compounded by a lack of clarity on who it covered and who it did not. Green card holders and dual nationals found themselves prevented from travelling, or held at airports when they arrived on U.S. soil.
Iraq was removed from the list following an intensive lobbying campaign at the highest levels of government. It is understood U.S. officials were satisfied that the vetting measures in place for Iraqi immigrants were sufficient.
Secretary of State Rex Tillerson described Iraq as ‘an important ally’ in the battle against ISIS.
Despite the differences between the two executive orders signed by Trump, it is difficult to see past the fact that if the U.S. courts thought the first one was not legally sound, they will think the same about this one.
Former New York Mayor and lawyer Rudy Giuliani stated that Trump asked him how to do a Muslim ban legally – if this is the starting point for any legal challenge, there is only one way to view the new order.
Legal challenges are already being formed for the new order, with the target being to get it revoked before the March 16, 2017 date of implementation.
The first Trump immigration ban provided a glimpse of the haphazard approach to governing the new administration has.
Many of the consequences were simply not considered, and by revoking that order, Trump has effectively admitted it was ill-conceived.
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