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President Donald Trump is expected to take executive action on immigration on Wednesday, limiting access to the United States for refugees and visa holders from several countries, according to multiple reports..
His actions will include steps to build a wall on the U.S.-Mexico border, the Associated Press reported, citing two administration officials. Officials told the New York Times that Trump will sign an executive order directing federal funds toward the project.
Several immigration experts and congressional aides briefed on the matter told Reuters that visa holders from Iraq, Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria and Yemen will be primarily affected by the new order.
According to Reuters, one of Trump’s executive orders will issue restrictions on refugees and is expected to include a multi-month ban on status admissions.
The ban will stay in place until the State Department and the Department of Homeland Security can come up with methods of improving and intensifying the refugee vetting process, the report notes.
“Big day planned on NATIONAL SECURITY tomorrow. Among many other things, we will build the wall!” Trump wrote on Twitter.
Trump is expected to sign the new immigration orders at the headquarters of the Department of Homeland Security in Washington D.C.
Trump promised to make numerous changes to the immigration system during his campaign, including restricting entry and implementing “extreme vetting” of Muslim immigrants.
“In the Cold War, we had an ideological screening test. The time is long overdue to develop a new screening test for the threats we face today. I call it extreme vetting,” Trump said in August.
The then-GOP nominee explained that his vetting program would evaluate whether immigrants coming into the country shared the U.S.’s ideological values, such as religious tolerance and support for LGBT rights.
Trump argued at the time that the policy would help authorities limit the number of potential extremists coming into the country.
He has also suggested a potential temporary ban on all Muslims coming into the country, or establishing a national registry for Muslims.
Secretary of State nominee Rex Tillerson did not rule out the possibility of a Muslim registry during his confirmation hearing earlier this month, but clarified that if established, it would also extend “to other groups” that are threats to the U.S.
“I would need to have a lot more information around how such an approach would even be constructed,” he said.
“If it were a tool for vetting, it obviously extends to other groups as well that are threats to the U.S,” Tillerson added.
At her confirmation hearing last week, U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley offered a conflicting stance when she said said, “His administration and I don’t think there should be any registry based on religion.”
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