Though the Donald Trump administration continues to tout the idea that the implementation of his immigration ban has gone smoothly, there was massive confusion across the country on Saturday regarding the executive order he signed Friday.
On Sunday, it appears the White House has reversed itself again, adding to the confusion, as senior adviser Reince Priebus told NBC’s Meet The Press that the immigration ban doesn’t apply to those with green cards.
“We didn’t overrule the Department of Homeland Security; as far as green card holders moving forward, it doesn’t affect them,” Priebus said.
That’s different than what was reported Saturday when it was revealed that, over the objections of the Department of Homeland Security, legal U.S. residents holding green cards could be banned from entering the country if they were nationals of Iran, Iraq, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria, and Yemen.
Asked again by Meet The Press host Chuck Todd about whether the travel restrictions will affect green card holders, Priebus said, in an apparent complete reversal of what he had just said, “Well, of course it does. If you’re traveling back and forth, you’re going to be subjected to further screening.”
Priebus than explained that Customs and Border Patrol agents would have the “discretionary authority” to question green card holders if they were traveling from those seven Muslim-majority nations.
Priebus also said that American citizens could be subject to more interrogations if they are traveling back and forth between those countries.
Here was the interview:
As Priebus told Todd, “This is going to be a very smooth and effective operation.” But as that interview attests, that hardly seems to be the case.