Donald Trump considers issuing new travel ban

Donald Trump is considering a new executive
order to ban citizens of certain countries from
travelling to the US after his initial attempt was
overturned in the courts.
Mr Trump told reporters on Air Force One that a
"brand new order" could be issued as early as
Monday or Tuesday.

It comes after an appeals court in San Francisco
upheld a court ruling to suspend his original
order.
It barred entry from citizens from seven mainly
Muslim countries.
It is unclear what a new US immigration order
might look like.

Mr Trump said that it would change "very little",
but he did not provide details of any new ban
under consideration.
Despite his suggestion on Friday, Mr Trump's
administration may still pursue its case in the
courts over the original order, which was halted a
week ago by a Seattle judge.
"We'll win that battle," Mr Trump told reporters,

adding: "The unfortunate part is it takes time. We'll
win that battle. But we also have a lot of other
options, including just filing a brand new order."

A unnamed judge from the 9th US Circuit Court of
Appeals, which on Thursday upheld the stay on the
original order, has called on all 25 judges of that
court to vote on whether to hear the appeal again.
Technically known as an en banc review, a second
hearing of the case would involve an 11-judge
panel, rather than the three initially heard the
appeal.

Mr Trump's travel ban, which was hastily unveiled
at the end of his first week in office, caused chaos
at US airports and sparked protests across the
country.

On Thursday, the appeals court said the
administration failed to offer "any evidence" to
justify the ban, which the president said was
necessary to keep the US safe from terror attacks.

However Mr Trump insisted that the executive
order was crucial for national security and
promised to take action "very rapidly" to introduce
"additional security" steps in the wake of the
court's decision.
He spoke as Virginia state lawyers argued in court
that his policy "resulted from animus toward
Muslims".

Their challenge focuses on the travel restrictions
imposed by the ban, rather than the four-month
suspension of refugee admissions.
But lawyers for the US government in Virginia
wrote that "judicial second-guessing" amounted to "an impermissible intrusion" on Mr Trump's constitutional authority.

The appeals court ruling means that visa holders from Iran, Iraq, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria and Yemen can continue to enter the US, and refugees
from around the world, who were also subject to a
temporary ban, are no longer blocked either.

But the ruling does not affect one part of Mr
Trump's controversial executive order: a cap of
50,000 refugees to be admitted in the current fiscal year, down from the ceiling of 110,000
established under his predecessor, Barack Obama.