The Department of Homeland Security was left making a legal analysis on the order after Trump signed it. This order reads to me, frankly, as though it was not reviewed by competent counsel at all.Īdministration officials weren't immediately sure which countries' citizens would be barred from entering the United States. (OLC normally reviews every executive order.) Yesterday, the Department of Justice gave a “no comment” when asked whether the Office of Legal Counsel had reviewed Trump’s executive orders-including the order at hand. Citizen and Immigration Services, the agencies tasked with carrying out the policy, were only given a briefing call while Trump was actually signing the order itself. Moreover, the New York Times writes that Customs and Border Protection and U.S.
NBC is reporting that the document was not reviewed by DHS, the Justice Department, the State Department, or the Department of Defense, and that National Security Council lawyers were prevented from evaluating it. The malevolence of President Trump’s Executive Order on visas and refugees is mitigated chiefly-and perhaps only-by the astonishing incompetence of its drafting and construction.