(CNSNews.com) – President Trump’s revised immigration executive order will reportedly prohibit entry to most citizens of the same seven Muslim-majority countries as those targeted in the original one, and will also keep in place his cap of 50,000 refugees this year.
The Associated Press cited a senior administration official as saying that the revised order will not, however, apply to green-card holders from the seven countries – Syria, Iraq, Iran, Somalia, Sudan, Libya and Yemen – or to dual citizens of the U.S. and those countries.
Speaking at the Munich Security Conference on Saturday, Homeland Security Secretary John Kelly said Trump was “contemplating releasing a tighter, more streamlined version” of the original executive order.
Kelly described the move as “a pause, until we look at a number of countries, seven in particular, and look at their vetting processes, how reliable they are – and I will tell you right now they are not very reliable – and find ways to vet in a more reliable way, to satisfy us that the people that are coming to the United States are in fact coming for the right reasons.”
Trump’s original Jan. 27 order barred entry to the U.S. of all refugees for 120 days and refugees from Syria indefinitely; as well as all citizens of the seven terror-prone countries for 90 days.
The ban led to chaotic scenes at airports as previously authorized refugees were turned back on arrival. Amid protests, federal courts issued temporary stays on enforcement of the order.
A temporary restraining order issued by a judge in Washington state on February 3 restrained officials from enforcing parts of the executive order prohibiting entry to the seven countries’ nationals, and to refugees – including those from Syria. It also restrained enforcement of a section of the president’s order prioritizing refugee claims by members of religious minorities.
The restraining order did not, however, apply to section 5(d) of Trump’s executive order, which set a 50,000 cap on all refugee admissions to the U.S. in fiscal year 2017.
That marks a significant drop from a ceiling set by President Obama last fall of 110,000 refugee admissions in FY 2017, which was a 57.2 percent increase from the 69,933 resettled in FY 2015 and an almost 30 percent increase from the FY 2016 target of 85,000.
Almost five months into the fiscal year, 36,217 refugees from around the world had been resettled in the U.S. as of Monday.
The largest contingents were 6,377 refugees from Democratic Republic of Congo, 5,490 Syria, 5,378 from Iraq, 4,480 from Somalia, 2,789 from Burma, 2,353 from Ukraine, 2,074 from Bhutan and 1,830 from Iran.
Monthly admissions have dropped steadily since the fiscal year began on October 1. October saw 9,945 admissions, November’s intake dropped to 8,355, then 7,371 arrived in December and 6,777 in January. For the first 20 days of February, only 3,769 refugees were admitted.
Unless Trump’s new 50,000 cap is lifted, the next seven months will see fewer than 13,800 more refugee admissions – an average of fewer than 2,000 a month.
The revised executive order is expected to be issued soon. Trump said during a press conference last week he would issue it “sometime next week, toward the beginning or middle.” He described it as “a new and very comprehensive order to protect our people.”
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