Trump's new executive order will no longer include preference for Christian refugees

President Donald Trump's administration is reportedly working to release a replacement executive order on immigration which will not include a preference for Christian refugees, according to a leaked memo.

According to a report from Politico, the revised order will keep provisions that temporarily ban the admission of all refugees, and it will also temporarily block the issuance of visas to people from the seven predominantly Muslim countries that were named in the previous order.

However, the leaked draft suggested that the indefinite ban on Syrian refugees will be dropped, and those who already hold entry visas would be exempted from the travel ban. It also indicated that it would no longer prioritize refugees from minorities subject to persecution.

Trump has said in interviews that he wants to give priority to religious minorities, specifically Christians, when considering which refugees to accept into the country.

"If you were a Muslim you could come in, but if you were a Christian, it was almost impossible. I thought it was very, very unfair. So we are going to help them," he told CBN, ahead of the first executive order.

Critics of the travel ban argued that the provision to prioritize religious minorities amounts to religious discrimination.

Administration officials have said that the original order was designed as a "pause" to gain time to tighten vetting procedures.

However, its sudden introduction resulted in the detention, and in some cases, deportation, of hundreds of people who arrived with valid visas.

Earlier this month, a federal appeals court upheld a lower court decision to suspend the previous executive order on immigration. The panel of three judges in San Francisco stated that the government failed to demonstrate that individuals from the seven countries represented an elevated threat.

In a press conference last week, Trump said that he intends to issue a new executive order based on the ruling of the appeals court.

"We can tailor the order to that decision and get just about everything, in some ways, more. We have some of the best lawyers in the country working on it," said the president.

The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) has said that they will likely pursue ongoing lawsuits in courts regardless of the revisions.

"As long as there continues to be a ban, we will pursue our lawsuits. The discrimination that spurred the ban doesn't simply disappear by the removal of a few words," said Lee Gelernt, deputy director of the ACLU's Immigrants' Rights Project.