Trump moderates ban on Muslims
UNITED STATES: The Trump administration took a major step back yesterday from its temporary ban on immigrants from seven Muslim-majority countries, issuing a clarification that the order does not apply to green-card holders ‘‘absent the receipt of significant derogatory information’’.
‘‘In applying the provisions of the president’s executive order, I hereby deem the entry of lawful permanent residents to be in the national interest,’’ Homeland Security Secretary John Kelly said.
’’Accordingly, absent the receipt of significant derogatory information indicating a serious threat to public safety and welfare, lawful permanent resident status will be a dispositive factor in our case-by-case determinations.’’
Kelly’s statement came hours after White House chief of staff Reince Priebus said that Trump’s executive order would not apply to legal permanent residents ‘‘going forward’’ and after federal judges in Boston had ruled that border security agents could not detain permanent residents or anyone with a valid US-issued visa.
Kelly’s action came after a day of conflict over the order that was played out in the nation’s busiest international airports on Sunday.
Scenes of family members waiting for detained loved ones dominated international arrival terminals, while volunteer attorneys worked around the clock to stop deportations and free detained passengers.
Trump’s directive reportedly was imposed with little notice or guidance to the relevant authorities, creating havoc in arrival halls and triggering latenight legal challenges in federal courts.
Even after Kelly’s statement there were still unanswered questions about what the government intended to do about refugees who had received permission to come to the US before Trump signed his order on Saturday.
Two court rulings questioned whether Trump could reject by executive action valid immigration documents issued by the government itself.
Airports remained the frontline in the battle. Crowds gathered at airports in Miami, Dallas, Cleveland, Charlotte, New York, Washington, San Francisco and Chicago. Exasperation grew on all sides, and some immigration officials threw up their hands.
‘‘They finally stopped talking to us altogether and told us to call President Trump,’’ said Becca Heller, director of the International Refugee Assistance Project.
Thousands of demonstrators gathered outside the White House, and a chanting crowd of hundreds also besieged the entrance to the Trump Hotel a few blocks away.
But the White House showed no signs of backing down. Trump and Priebus rejected charges of constitutional over-reach. Priebus said the list of banned nations for travel may expand to ‘‘Pakistan and other countries’’.
A Priebus statement that the ban would not apply to permanent US residents from those countries ‘‘going forward’’ went unexplained, and there was no new document from the White House changing what Trump had signed on Saturday.
A Trump statement issued in the afternoon provided no clarification, though Trump did say the US would begin issuing visas ‘‘to all countries’’ after the 90-day ban lapses.
‘‘My policy is similar to what President Obama did in 2011 when he banned visas for refugees from Iraq for six months,’’ the statement said.
‘‘The seven countries named in the executive order are the same countries previously identified by the Obama administration as sources of terror. To be clear, this is not a Muslim ban, as the media is falsely reporting.’’ – TNS