President Trump may roll out a revised executive order temporarily banning immigration from six or seven majority Muslim countries this week. When a federal judge held up enforcement of the original order last month, his administration argued in court (PDF) that any delay in implementation—even for a few days—would “irreparably harm” America. But now the administration’s own actions have thoroughly undermined this line. It is clear that the administration itself doesn’t even buy its own argument for the order.
The government has not only refused to provide any evidence of a threat from these countries while defending its order in court, but the Department of Homeland Security itself has found these countries are not a unique threat. Since the order was halted, top administration have repeatedly delayed implementing a new one that corrects the old one’s legal defects.



None of these actions are consistent with an urgent threat to America.
To begin with, after the disastrous rollout of the order in which hundreds of travelers were caught at U.S. airports and were denied entry, Secretary Kelly admitted that the order should have been delayed. “In retrospect,” he said, “I should have delayed it just a bit so I could talk to members of Congress.” This is completely incompatible with the arguments that the administration was making to courts at the very same time, that it had to be done immediately, that it could not wait even a few days.