President Donald Trump will release a new executive order on immigration Monday morning.
The new order comes after the first one, temporarily suspending the refugee program and barring travel into the United States from seven terror-prone countries.
This new order is slightly different from the first one, sources say, and moves Iraq—one of the seven countries from the first order,to a different category. It’s not entirely clear what the new category is or how Iraq will be handled in this new order at this time. It’s also unclear what other changes may be made from the first order, including in particular how the new one will handle the refugee program.
When Trump rolled out his first order, he was met with weekend protests in airports nationwide by progressive activists and members of the Muslim community in his first full weekend as president. Then acting Attorney General Sally Yates refused to enforce the order, and President Trump swiftly fired her for failing to serve the Department of Justice honorably by enforcing the law as she previously had agree to do when she accepted the position.
Since then, now-former Sen. Jeff Sessions of Alabama has been confirmed as the new Attorney General and sources that he and other cabinet members including Homeland Security Secretary John Kelly—a former Marine Corps general who led U.S. Southern Command before his nomination and confirmation—have been consulted on this executive order.
At a White House press briefing back on Feb. 23, Press Secretary Sean Spicer said the new order was “finalized” and the administration was working to implement it.
While Spicer also made clear that the administration believes the first order was lawful, done in compliance with U.S. code and authority granted to the president, and that it will succeed eventually in the legal process in overturning the ninth circuit ruling, he said that the new order does take into account the appeals court’s decision. Spicer said:
We’ve taken the Court’s opinions and concerns into consideration, but the order is finalized. It’s now awaiting implementation. What we want to do is make sure that we’re working through the departments and agencies so that any concerns or questions are handled on the front end. But we are acting with appropriate haste and diligence to make sure that the order is done in an appropriate manner.
It was originally thought that President Trump would sign the new order on Wednesday this past week, but reports surfaced that he called it off amid the positive reception he received after his highly successful address to a joint session of Congress on Tuesday night
