President Trump on Sunday aggressively defended his executive order restricting immigration from a number of Middle Eastern countries, saying Sunday “our country needs strong borders and extreme vetting.”
In a Sunday morning tweet, the president signaled he will fight to keep the executive order in place.
“Our country needs strong borders and extreme vetting, NOW. Look what is happening all over Europe and, indeed, the world – a horrible mess!” Trump tweeted.
Our country needs strong borders and extreme vetting, NOW. Look what is happening all over Europe and, indeed, the world – a horrible mess!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 29, 2017
On Saturday, a federal judge granted an emergency stay on implementation of Trump’s executive order. But the Department of Homeland Security said in an early morning statement it “will continue to enforce all of President Trump’s executive orders in a manner that ensures the safety and security of the American people.”
The American Civil Liberties Union filed a lawsuit in the eastern district of New York on behalf of two Iraqi nationals detained at John F. Kennedy airport. The stay was granted to in part because Syrian refugees and other migrants authorized to come to the United States would suffer “irreparable harm” if they were returned to their countries of origin while the suspension lasts.
Trump’s executive order, announced Friday, temporarily suspended immigration from “countries of particular concern,” including Iraq, Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan and Yemen for 90 days.
During that period, Trump asked Homeland Security Secretary John Kelly and his top intelligence officials to review what kinds of information visa applicants would need to supply in order to ensure proper vetting.
The order also suspended the flow of Syrian refugees into the country indefinitely “until such time as I [President Donald J. Trump] have determined that sufficient changes have been made” to the vetting process.
White House officials defended the president’s order during appearances on Sunday morning news shows.
When asked why there wasn’t a “grace period” in instituting the order, White House chief of staff Reince Priebus told NBC’s “Meet The Press” that they “apologize for nothing” with the implementation, saying they want to keep those who wish to do America harm out of the country.
“I don’t think you want to have a grace period … because then people who want to do bad things to Americans move up their travel two days in order to get into the country before the grace period is over,” Priebus said. “If you ask a lot of the people at the customs and border patrol will tell you you’ve just got to rip off the Band-Aid and you have to move forward.”
Kellyanne Conway, a senior White House aide, said Sunday said it is wrong to call President Trump’s decision to restrict immigration from seven Muslim countries a “Muslim ban.”
“These seven countries. What about the 46 majority Muslim countries that are not included?” Conway asked Fox News’ Chris Wallace.
“It totally undercuts this nonsense that this is a Muslim ban,” she said.
White House press secretary Sean Spicer said Sunday that the seven countries from which President Trump has temporarily halted immigration were flagged as “countries of particular concern” by his predecessor.
“The Obama administration put these first and foremost and said that these countries need to have further travel restrictions based on the intelligence that we have,” Spicer told ABC’s Martha Raddatz.
Sarah Westwood, Gabby Morrongiello, Al Weaver and Joel Gehrke contributed
