Donald Trump’s travel ban explained

DONALD Trump’s travel ban has caused worldwide confusion and the rules keep changing. This is what’s going on.

The legal argument around US President Donald Trump’s refugee ban is likely to turn on whether the president has the authority to control access to America’s borders and whether targeting people from a particular region in the world violates the Constitution. Picture: Evan Vucci/AP

DONALD Trump’s travel ban has caused worldwide confusion and the rules keep changing.

The US President unleashed chaos at airports around the country after he signed an executive order on Friday titled: “Protection Of The Nation From Foreign Terrorist Entry Into The United States”.

Since then reports have emerged of people being detained at airports, Australians being denied visas and others being sent back to their home countries despite having valid travel documents.

The full force of the ban has also yet to be felt after legal action managed to temporarily stop people being deported.

This is what’s going on.

WHAT IS AN EXECUTIVE ORDER?

Donald Trump has managed to put a lot of changes in motion simply by signing pieces of paper.

Executive orders give the President the ability to direct federal agencies about how he thinks they should be using their current resources. But they actually don’t create new laws or provide new funding.

For example, Mr Trump’s executive order to build a wall on the Mexican border basically establishes the project as a priority and directs agencies to use their funds to get it started.

US President Donald Trump holds up his executive order to start the Mexico border wall project. Picture: Nicholas Kamm/AFP

WHO IS IMPACTED BY TRAVEL BAN?

Trump’s order on immigration stops people from Iran, Iraq, Somalia, Libya, Sudan, Syria and Yemen from visiting the US for 90 days.

When the order was first signed on Friday there was a lot of confusion and uproar about whether it included dual nationals of those countries and those who had green cards.

Initially even those who were permanent US residents with green cards were not allowed to travel to and from the banned countries.

Two Christian families from Syria arriving in the US on Saturday after 14 years of processing, were told on arrival they were no longer welcome despite having green cards, according to NBC.

Following a huge uproar, Department of Homeland Security, John Kelly, announced on Sunday that green card holders would be allowed back into the country.

The US has also loosened the rules around dual nationals for Australians, British and Canadians.

Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull announced today that Australian dual nationals would be able to travel to the US in the same way as before.

It comes after a Melbourne schoolboy, who was a dual Australian-Iranian citizen, was denied a visa on Monday to attend a space camp in the US.

While dual nationals shouldn’t be denied entry to the US, a statement posted to the UK Foreign Office website, warned that dual nationals travelling to the US from one of the banned countries could be subject to extra checks.

The order also stops refugees from entering the US for 120 days and bans Syrian refugees indefinitely.

It will also cap the total number of refugees allowed into the US during the 2017 fiscal year (ending on September 30) at 50,000, a big drop from the current 110,000.

Protesters sit in the international terminal at San Francisco International Airport on Saturday to protest against Donald Trump’s executive order. Picture: Josh Edelson/AFP

IS IT A MUSLIM BAN?

Technically the order does not ban Muslims but covers everyone from Iran, Iraq, Somalia, Libya, Sudan, Syria and Yemen.

But Trump aide Rudy Giuliani told Fox News Saturday the president originally dubbed his executive order a “Muslim ban,” and asked the former New York mayor to show him “the right way to do it legally.”

Mr Trump also told the Christian Broadcasting Network that the government would give priority to Christian refugees over those of other religions.

In a Facebook post, Mr Trump denied the order was a Muslim ban and said it was about “terror and keeping our country safe”.

He said the US would issue visas again once the government had “reviewed and implemented the most secure policies over the next 90 days”.

However, some have noted that the ban does not apply to several Muslim-majority countries that have well-documented problems with terrorism such as Egypt, Turkey, Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, United Arab Emirates (UAE), Indonesia and Afghanistan.

Mr Trump has also been accused of excluding certain countries from the travel ban because of his business interests in countries like the UAE and Turkey.

IS IT LEGAL?

It didn’t take long for a legal challenge to be lodged once the executive order started being enforced.

The Americans Civil Liberties Union went to court after two Iraqi men, one of whom had worked as an interpreter for the US military after the 2003 US-led invasion, were detained on arrival at JFK.

After hearing their case, US District Judge Ann M Donnelly granted a temporary stay on Saturday to stop people from being deported.

While it doesn’t necessarily stop people being detained at airports across to the US, it does mean they can’t be turfed out of the country.

Judge Donnelly said she thought their removal could violate their right to Due Process and Equal Protection guaranteed by the US Constitution.

She has granted them a nationwide stay to temporarily block all deportations across the country but it will probably take several weeks for a more decisive ruling to be delivered.

Demonstrators protest against Donald Trump’s executive order during a rally outside the US Supreme Court in Washington, DC, on Monday. Picture: Saul Loeb/AFP

Federal courts in Virginia, Massachusetts and Washington state took similar action, and attorneys general from 16 US states, including California and New York, have condemned the order as “unconstitutional” and vowed to fight it.

Mr Trump’s case was also dealt a blow on Monday after Acting Attorney General Sally Yates, who was appointed by former president Barack Obama, said she had directed Justice Department lawyers not to defend the executive order on refugees.

Today Mr Trump fired Ms Yates. after she said the order wasn’t “consistent with this institution’s solemn obligation to always seek justice and stand for what is right”

According to CNN, Yates said in a memo that she was not convinced Mr Trump’s order was lawful.

Her directive was expected to stay in place until the Senate confirmed Senator Jeff Sessions, Mr Trump’s pick for attorney general, but hours after Ms Yates’ actions were made public, the US President fired her.

— With AFP