Yesterday, President Trump signed a new executive order banning citizens from Sudan, Syria, Iran, Libya, Somalia, and Yemen from entering the U.S. It comes 6 weeks after the first caused chaos at airports all across the country before being blocked by a federal judge.
During this time, the government has made several modifications to make it legal. As a result, it will now impose a 90-day ban on the issuance of new visas to people from the previously mentioned countries, and will suspend the U.S. refugee program for 120 days. However, this time citizens who are legal U.S. permanent residents and have valid visas to enter the U.S. will be exempt from the ban.
“We cannot compromise our nation’s security by allowing visitors entry when their own governments are unable or unwilling to provide the information we need to vet them responsibly, or when those governments actively support terrorism,” Attorney General Jeff Sessions said Monday.
The government has also announced:
“The new ban will not be implemented until March 16 to avoid the chaos experienced with the previous one.”
The new executive order will exclude Iraq from the blacklisted countries due to they role fighting terrorism and their willingness to increase control over citizens who travel to the U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said:
“Iraq’s removal from the list came after the Iraqi government communicated to the U.S. that it is willing to collaborate and increase control over citizens who intend to travel to the U.S.,”
“The United States welcomes this kind of close cooperation,” “This revised order will bolster the security of the United States and our allies.”
Members of Congress also reacted to the revised ban, including House Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wisconsin, who said that it “advances our shared goal of protecting the homeland.” Democratic leaders, however, said that it’s still a ban.
“A watered-down ban is still a ban. Despite the Administration’s changes, this dangerous executive order makes us less safe, not more, it is mean-spirited, and un-American. It must be repealed,” said Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-New York, in a statement.
House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-California, said in a statement:
“The Trump administration’s repackaging has done nothing to change the immoral, unconstitutional and dangerous goals of their Muslim and refugee ban. This is the same ban, with the same purpose, driven by the same dangerous discrimination that weakens our ability to fight terror.”
The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) announced that they will bring the new ban to court to block it as soon as possible because it still discriminates and targets Muslims.
“We’ll See You in Court, 2.0: Once a Muslim Ban, Still a Muslim Ban,” said an ACLU representative.
In addition, the president also signed presidential memoranda that will direct the executive branch to take immediate steps to implement enhanced vetting procedures. The administration is considering implementing a new biometric entry-exit system and directing that additional interviews be conducted for visa applicants.
According to the U.S. government, both the new executive order and the memorandum will be implemented for security issues. Attorney General Jeff Sessions added:
“The FBI is currently investigating 300 immigrants from the banned countries who have ties to terrorism.”
However, once again, the U.S. government did not show clear evidence to verify whether or not it is true.
There is a growing concern that the new executive order will help terrorist organizations to maintain their anti-western rhetoric and recruit thousands of new members.
The new executive order will also criminalize millions of innocent civilians from the 6 banned countries. Some of them have been waiting for years to flee to the U.S., but now, overnight, their dream has been dissipated and now, they will have to continue living under harsh conditions, facing death every day.
The criminalization of civilians and refugees is absurd and hypocritical. The vast majority of refugees did not choose to become refugees. Instead, this was imposed on them due to conflicts often started by the U.S. and its allies. They deserve more respect from President Trump. They have already suffered enough.
Over the next few weeks, a new legal battle will start between the government and those organizations that think the new ban is as illegal as the original. As with the first executive order, judges from different courts will have the last word.
Until they make a decision, millions of people from all over the world will be concerned, knowing that the final decision will determine their future and security.
Josep Goded 
The constitution of the USA gives full authority to the President to control those coming to the USA. The new ban isn’t a Muslim ban. If it were such a ban, many other countries would be included. For the six countries involved, they need to provide better information to the USA government to get off the ban list. Also this ban is temporary until the USA implements fully new procedures for entering the USA.
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Indeed, this is a ban based on religion, let’s not be in denial or allow others to insult our intelligence.
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The ban hardly is “based on religion” for people entering the USA and I think anyone thinking otherwise really is advocating a political position rather than a logical one. According to stats on Wikipedia, there are 1.6 billion muslims worldwide. In the six countries included in the ban there are 174 million muslims. That equates to less than 11% of the muslims in the world. If it were a ban based on being muslim there would be many more nations included.
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consider we are dealing with Trump, He singled out these states with no fore thought as to our need for the Iraqi translators, et al and now must remove Iraq from the list, he is incompetent. His plan is purely religious based, he himself proclaimed that christian s would be granted priority status on entering the states, he more often than not talks out of both sides of his mouth. If you are in denial, fine, but don’t insult my intelligence.
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I agree with Schumer and Pelosi. The revised ban feeds into the interests of extremists. Refugees and immigrants need our help. They deserve better — as do all Americans.
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