Trump to sign travel order leaving out Iraqis, legal residents

[WASHINGTON] A new executive order barring travelers to the U.S. from certain terrorism-prone countries will be signed Monday and will take effect on March 16, a White House aide said on Fox News Monday morning.

"I think people will see six or seven major points about this executive order that do clarify who is covered," adviser Kellyanne Conway said on Fox.

President Donald Trump has described the travel directive as an urgent national security matter but has repeatedly delayed issuing a revised order after a federal court blocked his original plan. It's now been more than a month since Mr Trump's original order was issued.

Legal permanent residents were always excluded from the entry ban, "but that's made much more clear now", Ms Conway said.

"If you have travel docs, if you actually have a visa, if you are a legal permanent resident, you are not covered under this particular executive action," she said.

Ms Conway said Iraq will no longer be a part of the 90-day travel ban that originally covered seven mostly Muslim nations in the Middle East and Africa. It's no longer on the list "based on their enhanced screening and reporting measures", she said.

The new order will also alter treatment of Syrian refugees, who had been banned indefinitely under the original order. They will now face the same 120-day ban as refugees from other countries, Ms Conway said.

The order will initially keep out citizens of Yemen, Syria, Iran, Sudan, Libya and Somalia for three months while the government determines whether people from those countries can be sufficiently vetted for terrorist sympathies.

BLOOMBERG