Well, here we go again!!   There is a new Revised Executive Order from President Trump.    Those who agree with his position on security in regard to immigration will cheer.   The main stream media will claim it is discriminatory.   As for me, I don’t agree with either.

Anyway, he did a much better job in writing this Executive Order.   The first one was a shoot-from-the-hip sort of job.   This one was much more carefully written in order to increase the chances that it will survive a court attack.   This version more carefully sets out the reasoning behind the decisions in the Executive Order.   This is done so that it is harder for someone to say that this Executive Order is arbitrary or based on prejudice.  That doesn’t mean that the courts have to agree with the reasoning in the Executive Order, but they have to at least give it reasonable consideration.

The main changes in this Executive Order are as follows:

1. Iraq is left off the list of nations whose nationals are not admissible.   There are now only six nations on the list.  The order says that Iraq has been working hard on helping us vet visa applicants (to be honest, I think it was a political decision — it looked bad to exclude people from Iraq).
2. The EO specifies that a person from those six nations can still enter if he has a US green card, if he already has a visa (or if he had one when the first EO was issued and then lost it due to the first EO), if he has already been granted refugee status, or if he also has a passport from a second country and is entering using that.   So, essentially, the EO just states that you can’t get a new visa if you are from one of those countries.
3. The EO no longer states that priority will be given to religious minorities in the refugee process.
4. The EO says that states and localities should be able to have a say in regard to whether refugees are resettled there.

The main things that were in the First EO and are continued in the Revised EO.

1. The 90 day limitations on entry by nationals of Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria and Yemen.
2. The Refugee program will be suspended for 120 days to allow the US to determine what additional precautions are needed.
3. The US Government will make a survey of countries around the world to make sure that they are providing the US with information necessary for the US to vet visa applicants.   And, if some countries are lacking in what they provide the US and the countries can’t or won’t improve, the US could take further actions — such as restrictions or limitations to protect US interests.  This was in the first EO, but was, in my opinion, not laid out clearly.  It is much more specific in this Revised EO.

So, in reality, this EO only affects people from those six nations who do not currently have visas, and refugees from all over the world.  And, currently it only affects people for 90 days if they are from those six countries, and 120 days if they are refugees.   Whether or not you agree with this EO, and I don’t, I still think those are not unreasonable limitations when a new leader is trying to grapple with what is, I think, a difficult situation.  Hopefully, within those timeframes, he will make an honest effort to fairly evaluate what steps can be taken to both provide for people who want to come here and for our security.   We can pray for that.

As far as this being a discriminatory Executive Order, I don’t see it based on the rationale provided in the Executive Order.   As I wrote in my earlier post, the seven countries on the list were all countries where the government either cannot or won’t cooperate with the US in making sure that visa applicants are well vetted.   The vast majority of Muslim countries are not on this list.    Also, the refugee restriction limits access to Christians and other religions as well as Muslims.   Furthermore, this Revised EO pointed out something that I had not realized — all six of these countries had been identified by the Obama administration as either State Sponsors of Terrorism or as a “country of concern” based on factors relating to terrorism and national security.   So it isn’t only Trump who has concerns about these countries.  Now, people can feel free to believe that this is a discriminatory Executive Order (and maybe they are correct), but I would suggest that that conclusion is driven by facts outside of what the EO actually says.

How does this affect you?   If you are not a refugee or a person from one of those six countries who does not have a visa, it does not affect you at all.  If you are from one of those six countries, you won’t get a new visa.  If you are here in the US from one of those six countries and your visa expires (remember that you are allowed to stay here as long as you have “status”, which is unrelated to when your visa expires) or you have a single-entry visa, if you leave the US you will not be allowed back in.

One other thing to keep in mind — there is a chance that a limitation on the granting of visas from other countries could occur in the future once the US has reviewed the world-wide visa situation.   To be honest, I don’t really expect that, but it could occur.

In case you are interested in my opinion — I don’t like these executive orders.  I think that they are reasonable attempts to resolve a difficult world-wide problem, but I don’t think that they really will help.    I really don’t think that there is a way to effectively vet people from a section of the world where lawlessness is rampant and governments are breaking down.   In my opinion, from what I have seen in almost two decades of doing immigration law, the people that interview the visa applicants act on hunches and emotions more than anything else — to be honest, their job is almost impossible — there really isn’t any way to see into the hearts of the people standing before them.  That won’t change even with additional vetting — usually, the information just isn’t there.  I think it will increase the denials of innocent people, but it won’t necessarily make us safer.  We have the best law enforcement in the world — I think that they are doing a great job, and they protect us well.   I think we now have probably the best balance we can have between security and receiving the aliens that God has called us to reach out to and care for.  I think that the level of security that this Executive Order is trying to accomplish cannot really be attained, but it may result in people whom God commands us to receive instead being turned away.

I think that is all.  We will see how it plays out in the courts.    What I really hope is that we would pray for God to guide President Trump and give him Godly wisdom in his decisions.  I also wish that we could discuss these matters without accusing the other side of being racist or anti-American.

I hope this is interesting and helpful.   Remember that this is not legal advice.  It is just a summary of certain aspects of immigration law which may or may not apply to your situation.   I encourage you to consulate an attorney if you think any of this may apply to your situation.