President Donald Trump is working on a "streamlined" version of his executive order banning travel from seven predominantly Muslim nations, Homeland Security Secretary John Kelly said Saturday.
Kelly spoke at a panel about combating terrorism at the Munich Security Conference and was quoted by The Associated Press.
He explained that Trump's original order was designed as a "temporary pause" to allow him to "see where our immigration and vetting system has gaps -- and gaps it has -- that could be exploited."
He added the Trump administration was surprised when U.S. courts blocked it from implementing the executive order and now "the president is contemplating releasing a tighter, more streamlined version" of the travel ban.
The San Francisco-based United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit recently rejected the Trump administration’s request to resume his executive action on immigration and refugees.
Trump indicated last week he would roll out a new immigration executive order that will be tailored to the federal court decision that paused his travel ban, which he described as “a very bad decision”.
Kelly said on Saturday that with the new order, he will be able to "make sure that there's no one caught in the system of moving from overseas to our airports."
Asked whether that meant Trump's new executive order would allow people with green cards and visas to come into the United States, Kelly said "it's a good assumption."
He went on to say, however, that only people with visas who were already in transit would be allowed in. For others, clarified Kelly, "We will have a short phase-in period to make sure that people on the other end don't get on airplanes."
He did not elaborate on whether this would apply to green card holders as well.