By  Harrison Jacobs and Reuters

A new version of a Trump administration travel ban will be
“streamlined,” U.S. Secretary for Homeland Security John
Kelly said on Saturday. Kelly told the Munich Security Conference that the new order
would not stop green card residency holders or travelers already
on planes from entering the United States.  “I would say the president is contemplating releasing a tighter,
more streamlined version,” he said.

U.S. President Donald Trump’s initial attempt to clamp down for
security reasons on immigration from seven Muslim-majority
countries and on refugees snarled to a halt amid a judicial
backlash and chaos at airports. Trump’s original order, which he said was meant to head off
attacks by Islamist militants, barred people from Iran, Iraq,
Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria and Yemen from entering for 90 days
and excluded all refugees for 120 days, except those from Syria,
who were banned indefinitely.

Last week, the Ninth Circuit Court of
Appeals

denied the government’s emergency appeal
to lift the
Temporary Restraining Order (TRO) on Trump’s immigration order
issued last week by a federal judge in Seattle, indicating in its
opinion that Trump’s past comments about a “Muslim ban”
can be used as evidence for discrimination.

The Trump administration originally said it would appeal
the federal appeals court ruling, but Trump has since said he

would issue a new order addressing some of the issues raised
by court decisions against the ban.

Kelly said that the administration had been surprised by the
ruling and would try to do better. 

I “will have opportunity to work (on) a rollout plan, in
particular to make sure that there’s no one in a sense caught in
the system of moving from overseas to our airports,” Kelly said.

Asked whether green card residency permit holders would be
allowed in, Kelly said: “It’s a good assumption and, as far as
the visas go, … if they’re in motion from some distant land to
the United States, when they arrive they will be allowed in.”

He promised “a short phase-in period to make sure that people on
the other end don’t get on airplanes. But if they’re on an
airplane and inbound, they’ll be allowed to enter the country.”

The abrupt implementation of the order last month plunged the
immigration system into chaos, sparking a wave of criticism from
the countries affected, and from Western allies and some of
America’s leading corporations, especially technology firms.

(Reporting By Shadia Nasralla; Editing by Kevin Liffey)