[auhor: Laura Anne Schierhoff]

President Trump issued a revised Executive Order (EO) that bans migrants from predominantly Muslim countries. This replaces a previous EO, which was blocked by a federal judge in Washington state in early February and a three-judge panel of the 9^th Circuit Court of Appeals upheld the lower court’s order. The revised order targets travelers from Iran, Libya, Syria, Somalia, Sudan and Yemen, but leaves out Iraq, which was included in the original EO. The order blocks the issuance of only new visas for these countries. The new ban will go into effect on March 16, 2017, and includes shutting down the U.S. refugee program for 120 days in order to develop “extreme vetting” procedures to prevent terrorists from entering the country. There is also a 50,000-person cap on refugees admitted into the country this year. In the original EO, Syrians were banned indefinitely, which is not the case with this current EO. The new EO also excludes a preference for “religious minorities” such as Christian claiming prosecuting in mostly Muslim nations, which was included in the original EO.