Admin clarifies, again, travel ban rules for legal residents
WASHINGTON — Legal permanent U.S. residents from seven countries whose citizens are covered by a three-month American travel ban won’t need special permission to come back to the United States after all, the Trump administration announced Wednesday.
White House spokesman Sean Spicer said green card holders will now be allowed to enter and leave the United States as they please, despite the ban. Spicer’s announcement was the latest effort to clarify and adjust President Donald Trump’s executive order banning travel and immigration from seven majority-Muslim countries.
The order, signed Friday, has caused drawn international criticism and spawned widespread panic among travellers and apparent confusion within the government about how the order should be implemented.
In the earliest hours of the travel ban, green card holders were blocked from getting on planes overseas or detained upon their arrival. Also blocked were some Iraqi nationals with special visas issued to people who helped U.S. troops fighting in that country.