The Trump administration is preparing to issue a revised executive order on immigration that is expected to incorporate a series of changes designed to withstand legal challenges.
Though the revision reportedly will continue to restrict travel to the U.S. by people from seven predominantly Muslim countries, it is likely to row back a ban on refugees from Syria and eliminate a preference in immigration for religious minorities. The administration also is expected to clarify that the travel ban does not apply to lawful permanent residents.
The replacement would supersede an executive order issued Jan. 27 that was subsequently stayed by the Ninth Circuit, which ruled that the order’s main provisions are likely unconstitutional. The White House has said it would redraft the order rather than appeal the ruling to the Supreme Court.
To address concerns over due process, the replacement order is expected to take effect at least a week after the president signs it. Though the delay in implementation cannot substitute for a failure to provide protections that due process demands, the lag may allow the government to demonstrate that it took care in enacting the measure after its first try created chaos at airports nationwide.
The American Civil Liberties Union and other groups that have challenged the travel ban in court say they will continue to do so. “As long as there continues to be a ban, we will pursue our lawsuits,” Lee Gelernt, deputy director of the ACLU’s Immigrants’ Rights Project, told Politico. “The discrimination that spurred the ban doesn’t simply disappear by the removal of a few words.”
The replacement order will maintain a cap of 50,000 on the number of refugees that can be admitted in the fiscal year that ends Sept. 30. The ceiling cuts by half the number of refugees who would be authorized to enter the country in the year.