U.S. official says 872 refugees to be allowed in

Customs says stop to travel causes ‘undue hardship.’

WASHINGTON — The Trump administration said Tuesday that 872 refugees will be allowed into the United States this week despite a presidential order suspending the U.S. refugees program.

Kevin McAleenan, the acting head of Customs and Border Protection, said the refugees were already traveling and stopping them would cause “undue hardship.” Their admission comes despite President Donald Trump’s warnings that refugees vetted under the Obama administration were not adequately screened to ensure they are not potential terrorists.

The refugee ban was part of an executive order signed Friday by Trump. In addition to the 120-day ban for refugees, the order bans entry to the United States from citizens of seven majority Muslim countries and indefinitely bars travel by Syrians to the U.S.

At a news briefing with McAleenan, Homeland Security Secretary John Kelly said the travel ban may be extended and other countries could be added to the list.

“I would be less than honest if I told you that some of those countries that are currently on the list may not be taken off the list anytime soon,” Kelly said. “They’re countries that are in various states of collapse” and may not be able to verify that people applying to come to the United States are who they say they are.

In his first briefing with reporters since he was confirmed, Kelly defended Trump’s order and said its intention is to keep would-be terrorist out of the United States and not serve as a ban on Muslims. Early in his campaign, Trump had called for a ban on Muslims entering the United States.

Kelly said “the vast majority of the 1.7 billion Muslims that live on this planet, the vast majority of them have, all other things being equal, have access to the United States.”

The retired Marine general also said the order was “not a travel ban” but a “temporary pause that allows us to better review the existing refugee and visa- vetting system.”

White House spokesman Sean Spicer made a similar statement in his daily briefing to reporters.

But Trump referred to it as a “ban” in a tweet Tuesday defending the decision not to provide advanced notice of the measure to travelers. Spicer also called it a ban on Monday.

“If the ban were announced with a one week notice, the ‘bad’ would rush into our country during that week,” Trump wrote. “A lot of bad ‘dudes’ out there!”

The rollout of the order has been widely criticized, a point McAlleenan conceded, saying communication among government agencies had “not been the best.”

But he said the refugee waivers were being made in concert with the State Department. According to guidance provided to some refugee aid agencies by the State Department, none of the refugees are from the seven countries — Iran, Iraq, Somalia, Sudan, Yemen and Libya, in addition to Syria — singled out for the all-out travel ban.

Kelly denied reports that he had been out of the loop in the White House planning for the immigration restrictions.

He told reporters he had 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 didn’t provide names of who was involved in the initial planning, but said the group included people from Trump’s transition team. Kelly also said he knew the order was coming because Trump had long talked about it as a candidate.