An email obtained by Politico indicates that, contrary to previous Trump administration claims, the roll-out for the president’s first travel ban issued in January was not as low-key as stated.
According to the Jan. 29, 2017 email sent to senior DHS officials, the department activated a “Crisis Action Team,” which an official has since said was standard operating procedure.
“The National Operations Center (NOC) Crisis Action Team (CAT) activated at 0800 this morning to assist in facilitating DHS response and reactions to the Presidential Executive Order Protecting the Nation from Terrorist Attacks by Foreign Nations,” the email said.
At the time the order was issued, Trump administration officials downplayed any image of turmoil.
“It really is a massive success story in terms of implementation on every single level,” a senior administration official told reporters two days after Trump signed the directive. Top Trump adviser Stephen Miller boasted to CBS that the roll-out was “efficient, orderly [and] enormously successful.”
A DHS official told the news site: “The crisis action team (CAT) is a mechanism to ensure efficient coordination and communication during events and matters that involve multiple federal, state, local, or private sector response efforts. The CAT is activated in response to a large-scale response effort to provide information and decision products to senior leadership.”
The order sought to curb admission to the U.S. of people from seven countries known to harbor terrorists. [source]
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