President Trump Signs Revised Refugee Admissions/Travel Ban Executive Order
Tuesday. March 7, 2017
President Donald J. Trump has signed a new executive order on refugee admissions, immigration, and travel to the United States, replacing the embattled Order that he signed on January 27, 2017. The President signed the revised Executive Order behind closed doors on Monday, March 6, 2017, with none of the fanfare that accompanied his signing of his first Order, which will be revoked, effective March 16, 2017. |
Key Changes. The new Executive Order contains several key changes from the January 27th Order that had become embroiled in scores of court battles and had had key portions blocked by litigation.
- First, it is not effective for ten days to give time for travelers and implementers to adjust.
- Second, it contains extensive justifications for the various provisions within it.
- Third, it explicitly exempts legal permanent residents, dual nationals who have U.S. citizenship, persons already granted visas, persons already admitted as refugees, persons already granted asylum, and persons scheduled for travel to the U.S. through the refugee program from the provision’s travel bans and program pauses.
- Fourth, it removes Iraq from the list of countries whose nationals are subjected to a 90-day travel ban.
- Fifth, it removed a provision in the January 27th Order that would have barred Syrian refugees indefinitely from being admitted to the U.S
- Sixth, it removed a provision in the January 27th Order that extended a preference and exemption for religious minorities facing persecution in the Middle East.
Key Provisions. With respect to refugees and travel to the United States, the March 6th executive order contains the following key provisions:
- Reduction in Refugee Admissions Ceiling. Section 6(b) of the March 6th Order caps refugee admissions for fiscal year 2017, the current fiscal year, at 50,000. This represents a reduction of 60,000 compared to the number of such admissions planned for the fiscal year by the Obama Administration. Moreover, it is a reduction of 35,000 from the 85,000 refugees who were admitted to the United States in Fiscal Year 2016.
- Pause in the Admission of Refugees to the United States. Section 6(a) of the March 6th Order pauses both the admission of refugees into the United States under the U.S. Refugee Admissions Program (USRAP) and pauses decisions on refugee applications for 120 days, pending the implementation of an order that the Secretary of State and Secretary of Homeland Security “shall review the USRAP application and adjudication processes to determine what additional procedures should be used to ensure that individuals seeking admission as refugees do not pose a threat to the security and welfare of the United States.”
- Involvement of State and Local Governments in Refugee Resettlement Decisions. Section 6(d) of the March 6th Order provides that “It is the policy of the executive branch that, to the extent permitted by law and as practicable, State and local jurisdictions be granted a role in the process of determining the placement or settlement in their jurisdictions of aliens eligible to be admitted to the United States as refugees."
The Order requires the Secretary of State to “examine existing law to determine the extent to which, consistent with applicable law, State and local jurisdictions may have greater involvement in the process of determining the placement or resettlement of refugees in their jurisdictions.”It also requires the Secretary to “devise a proposal to lawfully promote such involvement.”
- Rescission of Terrorism-Related Exemptions. Section 7 of the March 6th Order directs the Secretary of State and Secretary of Homeland Security to “consider rescinding the exercises of authority” to grant exceptions and waivers to persons otherwise barred from admission to the United States because of technical violations of the Material Support to Terrorism provisions of law.
- Imposition of Ninety Day Travel Ban. Sections 2 and 3 of the March 6th Order contain a 90-day ban on travel to the United States of persons bearing travel documents from six predominately Muslim countries: Iran, Syria, Libya, Yemen, Somalia, and Sudan. The sections also provide for adding or subtracting countries to or from the list of such countries at a later date.
- Special Vetting of Iraqi Nationals. The March 6th Order provides for special vetting for Iraqi national. More specifically, Section 4 of the Order provides that “An application by any Iraqi national for a visa, admission, or other immigration benefit should be subjected to thorough review, including, as appropriate, consultation with a designee of the Secretary of Defense and use of the additional information that has been obtained in the context of the close U.S.- Iraqi security partnership.”
- Imposition of “Extreme Vetting” Regime. Section 5 of the March 6th Order calls both for the development of new vetting procedures for all persons seeking to enter the United States.
Intelligence Flap. The Administration has sought to get the intelligence community to confirm that the six predominantly-Muslim countries whose citizens would be banned from the Unite States by the March 6th Order are threats for sending terrorists to the United States. However, two leaked intelligence reports from an internal DHS intelligence unit has undermined that effort.
- First Leaked Document. The first leaked document was an undated partial draft report from DHS’s intelligence unit that concluded that there was insufficient evidence that citizens of the seven countries included in President Donald Trump's travel ban pose a terror threat to the United States. Moreover, the draft report found that citizenship was “likely an unreliable indicator of terrorist threat to the U.S.”
The assessment looked at U.S.-based individuals convicted of or killed in the process of a terrorist act inspired or done at the direction of a foreign terrorist organization. It found the top countries the foreign-born perpetrators hailed from Pakistan, Somalia, Bangladesh, Cuba, Ethiopia, Iraq and Uzbekistan. Only Somalia and Iraq are on the Trump travel ban list.
- The Second Leaked Document. The second leaked document, dated March 1, 2017, is an unclassified Intelligence Estimate from the Department of Homeland Security’s Office of Intelligence and Analysis, prepared in coordination with the Customs and Border Protection (CBP), Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), and U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) units of DHS, as well as with the Department of State and the National Counterterrorism Center (NCTC). That document reveals a finding that most foreign-born, United States-based violent extremists are radicalized after entering the country and that opportunities for tailored countering violent extremism programs exist.
Litigation Matters. The January 27th executive order has been the subject of litigation in 40 different courts across the country. Five key parts of it have been blocked by the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, which upheld a district court’s temporary restraining order (TRO) enjoining the Administration from fully implementing it.
The March 6th Order revokes the January 27th Order, effective March 16th. At the time of this writing, it was unclear what the impact of the revocation of the January 27th Order will have on that pending litigation. Moreover, it also was unclear to what degree the March 6th Order will be subjected to lawsuits and how it will hold up should such suits be filed.
The March 6th Order revokes the January 27th Order, effective March 16th. At the time of this writing, it was unclear what the impact of the revocation of the January 27th Order will have on that pending litigation. Moreover, it also was unclear to what degree the March 6th Order will be subjected to lawsuits and how it will hold up should such suits be filed.
Implementation Matters. The implementation of the March 6th Order is delayed until March 16, 2017. In the meantime, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has produced a Fact Sheet on the Order, as well as a Q&A Document designed to provide greater detail.
See Also:
- March 6, 2017, Revised Refugee Admissions/Travel Ban Executive Order
- March 6, 2017, White House Memorandum on Implementing "Extreme Vetting"
- March 5, 2017, DHS Fact Sheet on the March 6 Executive Order
- March 5, 2017, DHS Q&A Document on March 6 Executive Order
- January 27, 2017, Refugee Admissions/Travel Ban Executive Order