The Trump administration promised a smooth rollout of a revised
executive order banning the nationals of six Muslim-majority countries from
entering the U.S. for a period of 90 days, effective March 16.
The new order drops Iraq from the list of countries in the
original travel ban, which was implemented in January and struck down by federal
courts, but not before it created chaos at airports nationwide, inspired a wave
of protest and lawsuits, and by many accounts caused a downturn in travel to
the U.S.
"You should not see any chaos or alleged chaos at
airports," said a Department of Homeland Security (DHS) official speaking
on background. "Folks won't be stopped tonight from coming into this
country because of this executive order. ... We are going to have a very smooth
implementation period."
The new order still imposes a 90-day suspension of entry to
the U.S. for nationals of Sudan, Syria, Iran, Libya, Somalia, and Yemen who are
outside the U.S. on the effective date of the order and do not currently have a
valid visa on the effective date of this order.
Officials from DHS said Monday that the order does not apply
to lawful permanent residents of the U.S. (green card holders), dual citizens
traveling on a passport issued by a non-designated country, or individuals with
valid visas issued before the order's date of effect. Under the original order,
there were travelers in all of these categories who were detained or had their
visas revoked.
DHS said that the 90-day period will allow for "proper
review and establishment of standards to prevent terrorist or criminal
infiltration by foreign nationals." Iraq was removed from the original
list due to the country's agreeing to increase cooperation with the U.S. on the
vetting of its citizens applying for visas to travel to the U.S., according to
DHS.
The DHS official stressed that the order was not a "Muslim
ban, in any way shape or form," saying that the ban does not apply to a vast majority
of Muslims around the world. The countries on the list "are either failed
states or state sponsors of terrorism where we don't have the ability to make
adequate screening and vetting info of their nationals," he said.
Officials said that the countries on the list will be
subject to a global, country-by-country review of the identity and security
information that each country provides to the U.S. and will be given 50 days to
comply with requests from the U.S. to update or improve the quality of the
information they provide.