Washington (CNN)The
US government will not automatically allow green card holders who
traveled to countries placed under a temporary travel ban back into the
United States, two sources familiar with the matter told CNN.
Instead,
those travelers will have to apply for a waiver to the executive order
that instituted the ban, the sources said. When they land, they will be
taken into a secondary screening process to determine their eligibility.
The
countries targeted by Trump's executive order include the
Muslim-majority nations of Iran, Iraq, Libya, Somalia, Syria, Sudan and
Yemen.
Executive orders: Read more
Green
card holders already overseas seeking to return to their homes in the
US will be processed through a waiver authority that has already been
established.
One official said there is a case-by-case admissions process and another said it is being done "expeditiously."
People
from the seven countries who have green cards -- a government document
granting permanent residence in the US -- should not leave the country
because they may not be allowed back in the US, one source familiar with
the matter said.
There's
been significant confusion over the precise terms of Trump's executive
order since he signed it Friday afternoon, particularly over how it
pertained to visa holders who are traveling and if any different
treatment was afforded to green card holders.
Exemptions
will be at the discretion of the Department of Homeland Security and
the State Department, and criteria for exemptions include refugee status
for religious minorities facing persecution, if denying admission would
cause undue hardship or if not doing so would not pose a risk to the
security or welfare of the US.
Those
traveling without a green card who landed in the United States after
the order was signed would be detained and put back on a flight to their
country of citizenship, an administration official told CNN.
Separately,
Department of Homeland Security officials acknowledged people who were
in the air would be detained upon arrival and put back on a plane to
their home country. A couple dozen people were held overnight at US
airports, an official familiar with the matter told CNN.
Two men who had been granted visas filed suit
after being detained at John F. Kennedy International Airport in New
York, although neither was a green card holder and instead entering
under visas tied to their involvement with the US military in Iraq.
The Iranian Foreign Ministry said on Saturday it would ban travelers from the United States in response to Trump's temporary ban.
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