US president Donald Trump’s pending executive order on entry to the United States is likely to include a provision to avoid the airport chaos of the earlier version—a five- to seven-day window between when the order is announced and when it goes into effect, according to an official who has been briefed on a draft version of the order.
The new provision, it if is included, would be an about-face from Trump’s earlier position. He said earlier on Twitter that “[i]f the ban were announced with a one-week notice, the ‘bad’ would rush into our country during that week.”
In addition to the advance notice, people who already hold visas from a list of banned countries would be allowed into the US, the source added, and long-term residents, including green card holders, would not be affected—though he stressed that the details of the executive order could change. The source, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because he wasn’t authorized to speak officially on the order, also said that Iraq may be lifted from the list of banned countries, as earlier reports had suggested.
When Trump’s first executive order temporarily banning citizens from seven countries and refugees from entering the US was introduced late on the afternoon of Friday, Jan. 27, it went into effect immediately, throwing airports and airlines into disarray and upending the lives of thousands of travelers. Some passengers were abruptly not allowed to board flights to the US. Others were sent back to their country of origin when they disembarked. And others were held for hours with no idea why they were being detained or access to lawyers or family.
The original executive order, which was quickly dubbed a “Muslim ban” because it bans citizens from seven Muslim-majority countries from the US for 90 days, as well as suspending the US refugee program, has been temporarily suspended by federal courts.
A White House spokesman said he had no comment on the content of the order or when it could be introduced. The new travel order was originally expected yesterday (March 1).