ABC News(WASHINGTON) — The Trump administration is expected to unveil a new travel ban executive order on Monday, sources tell ABC News.
The new executive order officially revokes and replaces the controversial order signed by President Trump in January and blocked by the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals last month. The new order has been crafted to withstand legal challenges, exempting permanent legal residents and applying only to future visa applicants, not those who already hold valid visas.
The new order also narrows the list of counties targeted, limiting travel and immigration from six majority-Muslim countries — Syria, Yemen, Sudan, Somalia, Iran and Libya — instead of seven.
Iraq has been removed from the original list at the urging of the Pentagon and State Department, where officials worried that keeping Iraq on the travel ban list could hinder the U.S. fight against ISIS.
The provision on refugees has also been changed: The new order puts a temporary halt on all refugees entering the United States. The first order applied only to Syrian refugees.
Sources say President Trump was reluctant to replace the original executive order and wanted to continue fighting to defend it in court, signing this one as a supplement of the first.
His legal team, however, made the case that the first one had to be revoked and he reluctantly decided to defer to them.
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