Trump signs new executive orders at the Pentagon

UPI photo

By

Kanwal Abidi

President Trump, on Friday at the Pentagon, signed an Executive Order that he said would provide a thorough vetting of refugees to ensure that terrorists cannot get into the United States.

“I’m establishing new vetting measures to keep radical Islamic terrorists out of the United States of America,” Trump said at a signing ceremony at the Pentagon.

“We don’t want them here. We want to ensure that we are not admitting into our country the very threats our soldiers are fighting overseas. We only want to admit those into our country who support our country and love deeply our people.”

The White House did not provide immediate details about Trump’s order, but reports in recent days suggested the order would temporarily suspend visa issuance to people from countries included on a handful of government lists designating sponsors of terrorism and countries of concern — Iran, Sudan, Syria, Libya, Somalia, Yemen and Iraq.

The order was expected to indefinitely block refugees from war-torn Syria from entering the U.S. and suspend all refugee admissions for 120 days while the administration determines which countries pose the least risk.

At the same ceremony at the Pentagon, Trump signed another order called “Military Readiness” to significantly grow the military, modernize the nuclear arsenal and add new Special Operations forces.

Kanwal Abidi

Washington based Pakistani journalist covering the White House and The Pentagon.