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Muslim Ban 2.0 – Everything You Need to Know

Earlier this morning President Trump signed a new, modified executive order restricting travel to the U.S. from six countries for the next 90 days. Here’s what you need to know about the modified ban:

1) Iraq has been removed from the list of banned countries. The list that used to consist of seven countries has been narrowed down to six; Sudan, Syria, Iran, Libya, Somalia and Yemen. According to the administration, this is because the Iraqi government has agreed to increase its “cooperation” with the U.S. government on the vetting of its citizens, as well as improve the quality of travel documentation and increase the sharing of information about potentially dangerous citizens. It’s still worth being pointed out that there are countries missing from the list that Trump has business ties in, the most notable country being Saudi Arabia, but then again, Trump has too many conflicts of interest to favor just one of them, right?

2) It’s not being enforced immediately. Travelers won’t be barred from entering the country immediately, instead the ban will begin at 12:01 a.m. on Mar. 16. This part of the new ban probably wasn’t Trump’s doing, considering he’s stated before that announcing a cut off date would result in an influx of immigration into the country. If anything, the cut off date was most likely added in an attempt to avoid the confusion that was created at airports from the last ban, which resulted in travelers across the country being detained the second their flight’s landed.

3) It doesn’t apply to green card or visa holders. This new modified version of the ban only applies to new visa applicants, meaning that the 60,000 people that had their visas revoked under the last ban are now permitted to enter the country. Legal permanent residents, green card holders and those with duel citizenship will not be effected by the new ban.

4) Refugee programs have been suspended, but Syrian refugees are no longer banned indefinitely. Unlike the last executive order, refugees from Syria now are now banned from coming to the U.S. for 120 days. As well, the number of Syrian refugees being accepted into the country been lowered to 50,000, as compared to the 110,000 that were allowed refugee status under the Obama administration.

5) There wasn’t as much showmanship this time. Last executive order, Trump was pictured being surrounded by his overwhelmingly white administration, everyone looking proud of the hard work they put into denying foreigners basic human rights. Except this time no one was there to pat Donnie on the back when he finished signing the order and the only picture from the ordeal was taken by Sean Spicer, who later tweeted the photo.

At the end of the day, it’s still the same xenophobic and Islamphobic ban that was passed on Jan. 27, except this one has nicer packaging and is called the “Executive Order Protecting The Nation From Foreign Terrorist Entry Into The United States”. The fact that there is now a second version of the order is probably the closest we’re ever going to get as an “oops, I messed up” from the president in the next four years.

See you in court, Trump (again).

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