2017 executive order by U.S. President Trump placing travel restrictions on several countries
Executive Order 13780, titled Protecting the Nation from Foreign Terrorist Entry into the United States, was an executive order signed by United States President Donald Trump on March 6, 2017. It placed a 90-day restriction on entry to the U.S. by nationals of Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria and Yemen, and barred entry for all refugees who did not possess either a visa or valid travel documents for 120 days. This executive order—sometimes called "Travel Ban 2.0"—revoked and replaced Executive Order 13769 issued on January 27, 2017.
The order was challenged in court by several states. On March 15, 2017, Judge Derrick Watson of the District Court for the District of Hawaii issued a temporary restraining order enjoining the government from enforcing several key provisions of the order (Sections 2 and 6). The judge determined the executive order was likely motivated by anti-Muslim sentiment and thus breached the Establishment Clause of the United States Constitution. On the same date, Judge Theodore Chuang of the District Court for the District of Maryland reached a similar conclusion (enjoining Section 2(c) only). On May 25, 2017, the Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit refused to reinstate the ban on constitutional grounds, citing religious discrimination. On June 26, 2017, the Supreme Court agreed to hear oral arguments for the petition to vacate the injunctions, meanwhile allowing the government to move forward with a narrowed portion of the ban. The Court eventually dismissed the challenges for losing practical relevance after the 90-day travel ban expired. On September 24, 2017, President Trump signed Presidential Proclamation 9645, replacing the expired ban. The new proclamation banned entry for many nationals of Iran, Libya, Somalia, Syria, Yemen, Chad, Venezuela, and North Korea. The district court and court of appeals again enjoined the new proclamation. On December 4, the Supreme Court allowed the ban to go into full effect, pending legal challenges. On June 26, 2018, the Supreme Court upheld the president's authority to implement these restrictions in the case of "Trump v. Hawaii". On February 21, 2020, Presidential Proclamation 9983 reaffirmed the ban and additionally banned certain visa entries for citizens of Eritrea, Kyrgyzstan, Myanmar, Nigeria, Sudan, and Tanzania who were outside of the U.S., seeking to travel to the U.S., and did not already have a valid visa.
On January 20, 2021, President Joe Biden revoked Executive Order 13780 and its related proclamations in Presidential Proclamation 10141.
Provisions and effect.
At 12:01am EDT on March 16, 2017, Executive Order 13780 revoked and replaced Executive Order 13769. Trump called the new order a "watered down, politically correct version" of the prior executive order.
Sections 2 and 6 were enjoined by Judge Watson's temporary restraining order in "Hawaii v. Trump" before they could take effect. Executive Order 13780 contained similar provisions as Executive Order 13769 but removed Iraq from the list of banned countries and removed the indefinite ban on Syrian refugees. Section 2 suspended the U.S. Refugee Admissions Program (USRAP) for 120 days, and Section 6 reduced the number of refugees to be admitted into the United States (in 2017) from 110,000 to 50,000. Sections 2 and 6 were enjoined by Judge Watson's temporary restraining order in Hawaii v. Trump before they could take effect.
Implementing the directive of Executive Order 13780, the United States Department of State proposed a new form, DS-5535, to collect additional information from all visa applicants "who have been determined to warrant additional scrutiny in connection with terrorism or other national security-related visa ineligibilities". The form contained new protocols and procedures for the purpose of "[ensuring] the proper collection of all information necessary to rigorously evaluate all grounds of inadmissibility or deportability, or grounds for the denial of other immigration benefits". The public was given fourteen days to comment on the proposed form. 55 academic and scientific organizations cosigned a letter, stating that while they appreciate and support the nation's security needs, the proposed form "is likely to have a chilling effect" on all travelers to the United States due to uncertainties and confusion regarding the supplemental questions and by delaying processing travelers who have strict deadlines and enrollment dates. The organizations said the form was unclear in the criteria for determining who would complete the form, the impact of unintentional incomplete disclosure of information, methods to correcting information initially provided, and how and for how long the information would be stored and kept private.
Section 3: Scope and implementation of the suspension.
Section 3 outlined many exceptions to suspensions of immigration that the order required.
Exceptions.
The order did not apply to international travelers from the named countries in some circumstances.
Case-by-case determinations.
The order also allowed exceptions to the entry ban to be reviewed on a case-by-case basis for the DHS and the Department of State to issue waivers or approval of a visa for travelers from the countries of concern stated in the order.
Section 6: Realignment of the U.S. Refugee Admissions Program for Fiscal Year 2017.
Under Section 6(a) of Executive Order 13780, refugees were prohibited from entering the United States under the USRAP for 120 days. During the 120-day period, the Secretary of State, in conjunction with the Secretary of Homeland Security and in consultation with the Director of National Intelligence, was tasked with implementing additional security procedures for the USRAP application and adjudication processes. The Secretary of State would resume making decisions on applications for refugee status only for stateless people and nationals of countries for which security measures were deemed adequate. The suspension did not apply to refugee applicants who had been formally scheduled for transit prior to the effective date of the order. Section 6(b) lowered the cap for refugee admissions for fiscal year 2017 from 110,000 to 50,000. Section 6(c) granted the Secretary of State and the Secretary of Homeland Security the discretion to admit individuals as refugees on a case-by-case basis, such as in cases when a preexisting international agreement or arrangement existed.
Section 8: Expedited completion of the biometric entry–exit tracking system.
Under Section 8 of Executive Order 13780, the head of DHS was mandated to "expedite the completion and implementation of a biometric entry–exit tracking system for in-scope travelers to the United States, as recommended by the National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States." Gary Leff, an airline-industry expert, referring to a 2016 DHS publication, believed it was likely the term "in-scope" referred to all non-U.S. citizens within the ages of 14 and 79, which Leff believed would increase the costs (money and time) of air travel perhaps due to fingerprinting requirements for all such people who traveled into the U.S.
Statutory authorization and related statutory prohibitions.
The order cited paragraph (f) of Title 8 of the United States Code § 1182, which discusses inadmissible aliens. Paragraph (f) states:
 ;templatestyles src="Template:Blockquote/styles.css" / ;Whenever the President finds that the entry of any aliens or of any class of aliens into the United States would be detrimental to the interests of the United States, he may by proclamation, and for such period as he shall deem necessary, suspend the entry of all aliens or any class of aliens as immigrants or nonimmigrants, or impose on the entry of aliens any restrictions he may deem to be appropriate.
When Judge Chuang enjoined part of the executive order, he based his decision in part on paragraph (a) of Title 8 of the United States Code § 1152, which discusses impermissible discrimination when granting immigrant visas:
 ;templatestyles src="Template:Blockquote/styles.css" / ;No person shall receive any preference or priority or be discriminated against in the issuance of an immigrant visa because of the person's race, sex, nationality, place of birth, or place of residence.
Countries included in the executive order and related presidential proclamations.
As originally written, Executive Order 13780 banned nationals of Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria and Yemen from entering the United States, with certain exceptions, for 90 days. This order did not include Iraq, which had been listed in Executive Order 13769. The Trump administration listed these countries citing their governments' support for terrorism or their inability to combat it, as well as potential unreliability of identity documents.
Due to court injunctions, the executive order was suspended until June 26, 2017, when it was allowed to take effect by the Supreme Court but was limited to people who did not have a "bona fide relationship with a person or entity in the United States".
Presidential Proclamation 9645.
At the end of the initial period of 90 days, on September 24, 2017, President Donald Trump signed Presidential Proclamation 9645, extending the ban permanently, modifying the list of countries and specifying affected immigration categories of their nationals. The ban applied to all nationals of North Korea and Syria; nationals of Iran except on student or exchange visitor visas; nationals of Chad, Libya and Yemen as immigrants or on tourist or business visas; nationals of Somalia as immigrants; and to certain government officials of Venezuela and their immediate family members, but not to its nationals in general, on tourist or business visas. According to the proclamation, these countries were listed due to their failure to adequately share information related to public safety and terrorism about their nationals, among other reasons. Sudan was removed from the list.
The State of Hawaii amended its pre-existing lawsuit in federal court to stop Presidential Proclamation 9645 from taking effect. On October 17, 2017, a federal judge determined that Presidential Proclamation 9645 "lacks sufficient findings that the entry of more than 150 million nationals from [the] six specified countries would be 'detrimental to the interests of the United States'". The federal judge granted a temporary restraining order, preventing Presidential Proclamation 9645 from taking effect on all countries mentioned, except for North Korea and Venezuela, the next day.
The International Refugee Assistance Project and other organizations, represented by the American Civil Liberties Union and the National Immigration Law Center, also filed a lawsuit to prevent Presidential Proclamation 9645 from taking effect. On October 18, 2017, a federal judge ruled that President Trump's public comments strongly indicated that national security was not the primary goal of the travel ban. Determining that President Trump may have intended to violate the constitutional prohibition on religious preferences when issuing Presidential Proclamation 9645, the federal judge ruled that the federal government could not enforce the travel ban on people from the countries listed, except for North Korea and Venezuela, who had a bona fide relationship to a person or entity in the United States.
Enforcement of the orders, barring the enforcement of the proclamation in part, from the Court of Appeals for the Fourth and Ninth Circuit were stayed by the United States Supreme Court on December 4, 2017, effectively revoking the lower courts' decisions against the president (Justices Ginsburg and Sotomayor opposed the stay).
This version was sometimes called "Travel Ban 3.0."
Presidential Proclamation 9723.
On April 13, 2018, a proclamation removed the travel restrictions on nationals of Chad.
Presidential Proclamation 9983.
On February 21, 2020, a presidential proclamation came into effect adding restrictions on nationals of additional countries. It provided that the United States would stop granting immigrant visas for nationals of Eritrea, Kyrgyzstan, Burma/Myanmar and Nigeria as immigrants, and would suspend participation of Sudanese and Tanzanian nationals in the Diversity Visa Program. Reasons for inclusion were focused on identity-management and information-sharing issues.
Legal challenges.
Challenges to Executive Order 13780.
"State of Washington and State of Minnesota v. Trump".
On March 9, Washington Attorney General Bob Ferguson indicated that the State of Washington would pursue obtaining a temporary restraining order and a preliminary injunction to block the Executive Order 13780 Ferguson publicly stated, "It's my duty, my responsibility to act. We're not going to be bullied by threats and actions by the federal government". The State of Washington indicated it would ask for a temporary restraining order and a preliminary injunction in the current proceedings related to Executive Order 13769 by asking the Court for leave to file an amended complaint to address Executive Order 13780. Ferguson also indicated that the states of Oregon, Massachusetts, and New York would ask for leave from the Court to join the current lawsuit against the executive order.
On March 9, 2017, White House press secretary Sean Spicer responded to the criticism of the order from several state attorneys general, and stated that the White House was confident the new order addressed the issues raised by the states in litigation involving the previous Executive