Welcome to the Reader‘s morning briefing for Tuesday, March 7, 2017.
Local immigration activists: Trump’s modified travel ban is still unacceptable
President Donald Trump introduced a modified travel and immigration ban that bars immigrants and visitors from six of the seven predominantly Muslim countries that the original policy named. The law will go into effect March 16 and last for 90 days. Citizens from Sudan, Syria, Iran, Libya, Somalia, and Yemen who didn’t have a U.S. visa when the highly controversial original ban went into effect January 27 will be barred. Citizens of Iraq, who were banned in the first order, will be able to visit and immigrate to the U.S. “Make no mistake that this is still very much a Muslim ban,” Ahlam Jbara, a board member of the Arab American Action Network, told the Tribune. “Immigrants from six of the original seven Muslim-majority Middle Eastern, Arab, and African countries will be targeted and disallowed entry into the U.S., and refugees won’t be accepted here either.” Illinois senators Dick Durbin and Tammy Duckworth slammed the revised ban, calling it unconstitutional. [Tribune] [Associated Press via Crain’s Chicago Business]
