New travel order omits Iraq from banned list, Conway says

President Trump’s revised executive order suspending the US refugee program and entry to the USA from several mostly Muslim countries included a number of changes compared with the original. It also removes Iraq from the list of origin countries affected-a move favored by the Pentagon and State Department.

Those for whom a waiver may be appropriate, the order says, also include people who hold dual nationality with a country not covered by the ban and “landed Canadian immigrants”.

Syrians will be treated the same as other refugees The initial travel ban included language that suspended immigration from Syria indefinitely.

Remember the rationale for the original ban was that the USA can’t properly vet people coming from these countries: America doesn’t trust the information it’s being given by those foreign countries. “As far as they are coming here legally, they are good”. While there remains a 120 day ban on all refugees, Christians in nations like Syria are not given preferential treatment. That could hurt resettlement agencies like Della Lamb Community Services, who depend on governement funding to successfully help integrate refugees into our society.

When The Post asked the White House about progress Monday, a spokesman said only, “When we have an announcement to make on that front, we will let you know”.

The 10 days’ advance notice may help to avoid some of the chaotic scenes at USA airports that occurred on 27 January when the first executive order was announced without warning.

The measure also keeps a 120-day pause on general refugee admissions into the USA, but it no longer indefinitely blocks Syrian refugees like the initial version.

The President was nowhere to be seen at a press briefing explaining the changes – he left it to his Homeland Security Secretary, Secretary of State and Attorney General. “The new executive order” has done nothing to change the immoral, unconstitutional and unsafe goals of their Muslim and refugee ban”, House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi said in a statement on Monday.

Much of the opposition was based on Trump previously stating his intent to ban all Muslims from entering the United States.

A Department of Justice official said they expect the new order to withstand the legal scrutiny that the first one did not because it cites specific examples where citizens from these countries were convicted of terrorism.

It applies only to new visa applicants, meaning 60,000 people whose visas were revoked under the previous order will now be permitted to enter.