A Trump administration executive order to ramp up screening of immigrants arriving from the Middle East and Africa is in a state of flux as the president scrambles to pass a $1.9 trillion spending package to keep the government open.
Trump is expected to announce Thursday that the U.N. Security Council will meet for the first time on Friday, and that a U.K. minister will visit the U-N on Monday.
The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The order, which Trump issued last week, would impose a “extreme vetting” plan that would require visa applicants to undergo a polygraph test, which can determine whether they pose a security risk, and would bar entry for people who are known to have committed terrorist acts in the U.-S.
homeland.
Trump said that the order was necessary to “protect the American people from terrorist attacks.”
But the administration is still reviewing the policy, including whether to use a national emergency clause in the legislation to extend the order beyond Friday.
Trump’s order has drawn fire from lawmakers and others who worry that the plan would disproportionately affect immigrants from countries that have already been targeted by Trump’s travel ban.
The U.F.O. ban has been blocked in federal courts, but the court of appeals for the District of Columbia has also ruled that the executive order is constitutional.
Trump has repeatedly said that he will use the court to stop the ban.
He also has promised to implement the order in the face of legal challenges, which he has said would be “an act of war.”
The order has faced criticism from groups that have called it unconstitutional and unconstitutional in violation of the First Amendment.
It also has faced strong criticism from civil liberties groups, as well as from immigration advocates who say the plan will disproportionately affect minority communities.
On Wednesday, an immigration lawyer representing an immigrant detained in Saudi Arabia for several weeks said he plans to challenge the order.
He told the Washington Post that the administration should not use the courts to justify the ban and that the Justice Department has told him it will not enforce it.
“If the president wants to get rid of the order, the only way he can do that is through executive fiat,” said the lawyer, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to discuss the case publicly.
“He can’t simply say, ‘We are going to make a decision.'”