What New Trump Travel Ban Means for Legal Battle: QuickTake Q&A

President Donald Trump signed a new executive order on immigration March 6, rather than continue fighting court challenges to his Jan. 27 order closing U.S. borders to refugees and citizens of seven mostly Muslim countries. He had said the new order would be tailored to address the objections of the judges who barred enforcement of the original one. The revised order affects fewer people and so narrows the pool of plaintiffs who can challenge it in court. Still, it faces a new round of litigation.

The new order excludes Iraq from the list of countries -- Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria and Yemen -- whose citizens are barred from entering the U.S. for 90 days. Like the old order, the new one prohibits entry to all refugees -- people fleeing their homelands claiming persecution or fear of violence -- for 120 days, but Syrian refugees are no longer barred indefinitely. The first change is aimed at political objections to the original order, since Iraq’s inclusion threatened its cooperation with U.S. efforts to battle the terrorist group Islamic State. The new order clearly exempts holders of green cards -- people who are legal permanent residents of the U.S.; people who acquire permits to travel to the U.S. on or after the date of the order; those granted asylum in the U.S. before the effective date of the order; and people who already are legally in the U.S. on visas letting them in for work, study or other approved purposes.