Washington – Homeland Security Secretary John Kelly is denying reports that he was not given details of President Donald Trump’s executive order on immigration until around the time Trump signed it.
Subscribe to our Daily Roundup Email
Kelly told reporters he looked at two drafts of the order before the Friday signing and that high-level government lawyers and agency officials were involved in drafting it.
He also said he knew it was coming because Trump had long talked about it as a presidential candidate.
Trump’s order temporarily halted the U.S. refugee program and banned entries from citizens of seven Muslim-majority countries for 90 days.
People who know Kelly told The Associated Press that he was not aware of the details in the directive until around the time that Trump signed it.
A senior U.S. official says 872 refugees will be allowed into the United States this week despite the Trump administration executive order suspending the U.S. refugees program.
Kevin McAleenan, acting commissioner of the U.S. Customs and Border Protection agency, said these refugees would be granted waivers. He said that was allowed for under the order, in instances where refugees were ready for travel and stopping them would cause “undue hardship.”
McAleenan said this was being done in concert with the State Department. He said 872 refugees will be arriving this week and will processed for waivers through the end of the week.
He was speaking at a news conference Tuesday about the administration’s new immigration restrictions, which also suspends arrival by nationals from seven predominantly Muslim nations.
He was technically given a high level summary of the draft order just before it was issued but his staff had no substantive input to the drafting process which was handled entirely by the WH counsel’s office. Nothing “illegal” but simply reflects the paranoia of the new team about being co-opted by the bureaucracy. Kelly is a good soldier and was not going to fall on his sword so early on a relatively minor issue of “consultation” on an order that is short-term in focus.
Well, we can at least agree it would have been a Very Bad Thing is the White House did not staff the proposed executive order through the State, Defense, Justice and Homeland Security Departments.
At the moment this gentleman is saying that did (sort of) happen. If we find out different later, that would reflect poorly on everyone involved.