President Trump signs executive order targeting refugees

But earlier on Friday White House spokesman Sean Spicer said Trump would sign an order temporarily halting the flow of refugees into the US and stopping all entries from some majority-Muslim nations.

The other executive order will put in place “new vetting measures to keep radical Islamic terrorist out of the United States of America”, Trump said.

The draft, which was leaked to the media on Wednesday, bars the entrance of noncitizens from certain Muslim-majority countries, including Iraq, Iran, Syria, Yemen, Sudan, Libya and Somalia, for 30 days.

In an interview with CBN News, Trump said persecuted Christians would be given priority in applying for refugee status.

The new Trump administration plans to introduce “extreme vetting” of immigrants from majority-Muslim countries, according to a draft executive order leaked Wednesday to civil rights advocates. “We, as attorneys, are foot soldiers of the American Constitution and took an oath to protect all from being targeted by the government due to their faith”, said lawyer Shereef Akeel, who is also co-counsel on the lawsuit.

Speaking to the Christian Broadcast Network (CBN) prior to the signing, President Trump suggested that he will grant higher priority to Christian refugees. So in spite of Trump’s promise to help them first, Christian refugees won’t be allowed in during that time, either.

The White House did not immediately release the executive orders Trump signed Friday.

“His comments during the campaign and a number of people on his team focused very much on religion as the target”, Mr Motomura said.

Extreme vetting is an idea that evolved from Trump’s controversial Muslim ban that he called for in December 2015, which would address the refugees entering the country.

Specifically, he said, “You’re looking at people that come in, in many cases, in some cases with evil intentions”.

The Trump administration’s plans to limit immigration and refugees could be a boon for Canada but also unsafe for those fleeing war-torn countries, according to Calgary experts.

During the campaign, Trump talked about these countries as “terror-prone” countries.

Trump gave no further details on the executive action, titled “Protecting the Nation from Terrorist Attacks by Foreign Nationals”, which he announced and signed during a visit to the Department of Defense on Friday. Restrictions on refugees will be likely to include a multi-month ban on admissions from all war-affected nations, news reports said.

The prder stated the USA would: “prioritise refugee claims made by individuals on the basis of religious-based persecution, provided that the religion of the individual is a minority religion in the individual’s country of nationality”.

But Rima Shahid, executive director of the Muslim Alliance of IN, says the process is “extreme” IN its current state.

Trump banned citizens of seven Muslim-majority countries from entering the USA for at least the next 90 days.