Donald Trump Tries Out a New Travel Ban, Blocking Six Majority-Muslim Nations

American President Donald Trump has had a second crack at his U.S. travel ban, following the collapse of his first attempt.

His revised order includes changes that the White House hopes will help it to stand-up in court, where his previous effort failed. It will take effect on March 16 and place a 90-day ban on travel to the States by citizens of Iran, Libya, Syria, Somalia, Sudan and Yemen, as well as a 120-day ban on all refugees.

Previously, Trump had called for an indefinite ban on all Syrian refugees, but that provision has not made it to this second draft.

According to ABC News, legal residents of the U.S., green card holders and refugees already in transit are now exempt from this new ban.

Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull has insisted the updated order will not affect the proposed ‘refugee swap’ between Australia and America, saying, “[President Trump] has agreed to honour, continue with, the arrangements entered into with his predecessor.” (Read more about it here.)

In the first weeks of his tumultuous presidency, Trump signed an executive order to temporarily ban refugees and travellers to the US from seven Muslim-majority countries: Iran, Iraq, Libya, Syria, Somalia, Sudan and Yemen. (The new order has removed Iraq from the list, following their introduction of heightened visa screening and data sharing, according to the White House.)

Trump’s initial order was blocked by the courts, which suggested the ban was based in “fiction”. The judge added that Trump’s usage of the assault on New York in 2001 as an argument for the ban was moot, as no attacks on U.S. soil had been carried out by individuals from those banned nations in the wake of 9/11.

The executive order was on such shaky legal ground, the acting attorney-general Sally Yates refused to defend it in court. Trump gave her the sack and installed an attorney-general who would.

(Never mind that the current attorney-general, Jeff Sessions, is embroiled in his own distracting controversy at the moment, regarding those pesky Russians.)

The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) has pledged to fight the updated order in court, insisting it still discriminates on the basis of religion.

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