Trump to sign revised travel ban today

WASHINGTON • President Donald Trump is expected to sign a revised travel ban today, just over a month after his original decree sowed controversy across the United States and chaos at airports, US media reported.

The President will sign the new executive order at the Department of Homeland Security, according to Politico, which cited senior government officials. It was unclear what changes Mr Trump planned to make, according to the publication.

Mr Trump's original Jan 27 order was widely criticised as amounting to a ban on Muslims, and also for being rolled out sloppily - with virtually no warning to the public or preparation of the agencies tasked with enforcing it.

The order, which temporarily barred people from seven Muslim-majority countries from travelling to the US for 90 days, as well as all refugees for 120 days and Syrian refugees permanently - triggered worldwide outrage and protests in the US. It also caused chaos in the first days of its implementation as people arriving at US airports from targeted countries were detained and sometimes sent back to where they had come from.

However,the order was halted after two judicial setbacks - a nationwide freeze on Mr Trump's ban by a district judge in Seattle and a subsequent ruling by San Francisco's Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals upholding the suspension.

AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE

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A version of this article appeared in the print edition of The Straits Times on March 06, 2017, with the headline Trump to sign revised travel ban today. Subscribe