Press Release

New York City…The president today signed a revised executive order seeking to address the legal flaws that led federal courts to block his Jan. 27 travel ban against refugees and migrants from several Muslim-majority countries.

Margaret Fung, AALDEF Executive Director, said: “This latest version of a Muslim ban fails to address national security concerns and continues to violate constitutional protections for immigrant communities.”

The new executive order will still halt admissions to the U.S., effective March 16, 2017, of nationals from six Muslim-majority countries (Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria, and Yemen) for at least 90 days (Iraq is no longer included in the travel ban.) It replaces the Jan. 27 travel ban that suspended the immigrant and nonimmigrant entries of individuals of seven Muslim-majority countries. The order seeks to work around a successful legal challenge blocking implementation of the original order by exempting lawful permanent residents and dual nationals traveling on the passports of non-designated countries, as well as other individuals in very limited circumstances. As in the original directive, the travel ban suspends the U.S. refugee admissions program for 120 days and limits the number of refugees to 50,000 for the 2017 fiscal year, although it no longer singles out Syrian refugees for an indefinite period.

AALDEF’s team of attorneys is closely monitoring the Department of Homeland Security’s implementation of the president’s newly issued executive order and its impact on immigrants and refugees and their families. In late January, there were widespread reports of chaos at airports around the country following the rollout of the original directive.

Annie Wang, a staff attorney in AALDEF’s Immigrant Access to Justice program, said: “While the administration tweaked the language of the initial order to give it a veneer of legal justification, we believe that the Muslim/Travel Ban 2.0 will not make our country safer and are confident that its discriminatory intent and impact will be challenged again in the courts.”

As the impacts of the new executive order unfold, AALDEF will offer free legal consultations to community residents and their families who may be affected by the order and will conduct legal workshops and trainings.

For more information, contact:

Annie Wang, Staff Attorney
212.966.5932 x213
awang@aaldef.org

Ken Kimerling, Legal Director
212.966.5932 x203
kkimerling@aaldef.org