New travel ban will exempt current visa holders, sources say

March 1, 2017
  • Industry News

The Trump administration is finalizing a revised travel ban that exempts current visa holders, according to people familiar with the matter.

The revision marks a significant departure from the now-frozen first executive order, which temporarily barred citizens of seven majority-Muslim countries and all refugees from entering the United States and resulted in the State Department revoking tens of thousands of visas. Justice Department lawyers hope the new order will be more likely to withstand legal challenges and will not leave any travelers detained at U.S. airports.

The new order also removes an exception to the refu­gee prohibition for religious minorities, one person said. Critics of the order had said that that exception proved the order was meant to discriminate on the basis of religion, because it allowed only Christians into the country.

The new order, the details of which were first reported by the Wall Street Journal, was expected to be signed Wednesday, but the White House canceled that after Trump’s speech Tuesday night.

Read more at The Washington Post: https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/new-travel-ban-will-exempt-current-visa-holders/2017/02/28/42ac1f3a-fe03-11e6-99b4-9e613afeb09f_story.html