After President Donald Trump issued his first travel ban last year, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) reportedly deployed a crisis action team, Politico reports.
“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,” said an email sent to senior DHS officials on January 29.
The mail was released a few days ago in response to a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit. According to an unnamed DHS official, the agency followed the protocols for handling complex events.
“The crisis action team (CAT) is a mechanism to ensure effective 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 official stated.
Some of the records released through the Freedom of Information Act lawsuit, show the internal confusion about the application of the initial executive order to various groups like U.S. green card holders, Canadian residents who are citizens of the restricted countries and refugees holding approved travel documents, but no passports.
Airlines asked for answers from DHS on behalf of passengers who wanted to travel in the days after the order and officials complained that they were sometimes getting contradictory guidance from top officials. Officials dealing with airlines and airports were told to direct all questions to a phone number in Washington, D.C., but some say the line was unresponsive.
Trump issued his first travel ban last January. The order banned people from Iraq, Iran, Syria, Yemen, Libya, Sudan and Somalia from entering the United States for 90 days, halted the U.S. refugee resettlement program for 120 days and indefinitely suspended the resettlement of Syrian refugees.
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