WASHINGTON, Jan 29 (APP): The US ban on travelers from seven Muslim countries caused a chaos and chaotic scenes at international airports after it was revealed that the restriction was also applicable to those holding Green Cards or legal residents.
President Trump this week issued an executive order to suspended
entry of all refugees for 120 days and banned for 90 days the entry of any citizens from Iraq, Iran, Syria, Yemen, Sudan, Libya and Somalia aimed at what the President said screen out “radical Islamic terrorists”.
Responding to widespread criticism from human rights activists and
legal professionals, the White House dispelled the impression that it was a ban on Muslims as a senior official said that many majority Muslim countries, including Afghanistan, Pakistan and Turkey, were excluded from the measure.
The situation led to extreme confusion on Saturday when it was
revealed by the administration officials that in addition to the ban on entries from the seven Muslim countries, including students and others,
the ban is also being applied to US legal residents from those nations who hold Green Cards.
The report quoting an official, who declined to disclose identity as
the situation was still unclear, said that those Green Card holders living in the United States would not be affected.
The officials noted that “the Department of Homeland Security is
allowed to grant waivers to those individuals and others deemed to not pose a threat to national security.”
“If you’ve been living in the United States for 15 years and you
own a business and your family is here, will you be granted a waiver? I’m assuming yes, but we are working that out,” said one official, according to the report.
Officials made it clear that federal officers, who are detaining
refugees and migrants with valid US visas and disallowing them entering
the United States, were following the orders from the top Homeland
Security officials as desired by the White House.
Speaker of the Congress, Paul Ryan, who had clashed with Trump
during the campaign, fully supported the new move, saying it wasn’t a religious test not a ban on people from any religion.
“This order does not affect the vast majority of Muslims in the
world. It does not affect a large number of nations that are Muslim majority.”
The Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR), a major US based advocacy group denounced the order and said it was going to file a
lawsuit next week against the ban as unconstitutional.
“There is no evidence that refugees the most thoroughly vetted
of all people entering our nation are a threat to national security…. This is an order that is based on bigotry, not reality,” Lena F. Masri, CAIR’s national litigation director, said in a statement.
