Washington, Feb 11: US President Donald Trump vowed to order new security measures by next week intended to stop terrorists from entering the US, even as aides debated whether to ask the Supreme Court to reinstate his original travel ban that has now been blocked by lower courts.
A day after a three-judge panel rebuffed him, Trump said he might sign “a brand new order” by Monday or Tuesday that would be aimed at accomplishing the same purpose but, with a stronger legal basis, the New York Times reported.
While he vowed to keep fighting for the original order in court, he indicated that he would not wait for the process to play out to take action.
Asked if he would do that, Trump said, “We need speed for reasons of security, so it very well could be.”
“We will be extreme vetting,” Trump had earlier said during his White House press conference. “We will not allow people into our country who are looking to do harm to our people.”
White House officials denied news reports that the President would not appeal the case to the Supreme Court.
“All options remain on the table,” Sean Spicer, the White House Press Secretary, said late Friday.
Emboldened by the appeals court, Democrats attacked Trump for trying to subvert American values.
“I promise you, we will fight back,” Representative Joseph Crowley of New York, the chairman of the House Democratic Caucus, said in his party’s weekly radio and Internet address.
“We will resist. We will resist on behalf of what is American. And we will resist on behalf of the immigrants who came here in the past and who will come here in the future,” he said.
Trump’s original order mandated a temporary pause in admission of refugees, a 90-day prohibition on entry by residents of Iraq, Syria, Sudan, Iran, Somalia, Libya, and Yemen, and an indefinite suspension of admission of Syrian refugees.
The administration can ask for a review of the panel’s decision by the full 9th Circuit, or it can seek intervention by the top court, according to the report. A tie in the Supreme Court would allow the appellate ruling to stand. Roughly 1,000 State Department career employees have signed a memo denouncing the executive order.
White House officials could draft a new order that would address some of the concerns raised by the judges, the newspaper reported.
A new order, for instance, could explicitly state that it did not apply to permanent legal residents holding green cards.
