Moments ago, Kellyanne Conway confirmed that President Donald Trump will sign a new executive order on immigration Monday, which as Reuters reported earlier, will remove Iraq from the list of countries targeted in the travel ban. The revised order comes over a month after his controversial first attempt was blocked in the courts. According to a Reuters source, the new executive order would keep a 90-day ban on travel to the United States by citizens of six Muslim-majority nations - Iran, Libya, Syria, Somalia, Sudan and Yemen. Iraq has been removed from the list of countries in the original Jan 27 order because the Iraqi government had imposed new vetting procedures, such as heightened visa screening and data sharing, and because of its work with the United States in countering Islamic State militants. In other words, Iraq complained the most vocally and Trump's advisors conceded that there is more to be lost than gained by keeping Iraq off the list.

In another important change, the new order is expected to apply only to future visa applicants from the targeted countries, with current visa holders and legal permanent residents, or green-card holders, unaffected. That is a significant rollback from the original, which impacted nearly 60,000 existing visa holders from seven nations, according to the State Department. The original order was unclear about the treatment of green-card holders.

More than two dozen lawsuits were filed in U.S. courts against the original travel ban, and the state of Washington succeeded in having it suspended by the 9th Circuit court of Appeals by arguing that it violated constitutional protections against religious discrimination. Trump publicly criticized judges who ruled against him and vowed to fight the case in the Supreme Court, but then decided to draw up a new order with changes aimed at making it easier to defend in the courts.

Furthermore, while the first order imposed restrictions immediately, the new directive would have an undefined implementation phase-in delay to limit the disruptions that created havoc for some travelers. Refugees who are "in transit" and have already been approved would be able to travel to the United States. Trump's original order barred travelers from the seven nations from entering for 90 days and all refugees for 120 days. Refugees from Syria were to be banned indefinitely, but under the new order they are not given separate treatment.

The revised order is expected to again temporarily suspend the admission of refugees to the U.S., but unlike the original, it is likely to treat Syrian refugees the same way as those from other countries, the WSJ adds. The original executive order suspended the entire refugee program for four months and indefinitely suspended admission of Syrian refugees.

"This executive order has scrapped that division and the indefinite suspension, and has collapsed them into a single category of a 120-day suspension," the Reuters source said.

During the presidential election campaign last year, Trump called for a temporary ban on all Muslims entering the United States. He said his initial executive order issued just a week after he took office was needed to head off attacks by Islamist militants. However, the White House official said the new order was based on national security considerations and had nothing to do with religion.

"It is substantially different from the first order yet it will do the same thing in this important way: It will protect the country and keep us safe," the official said. The administration would also reset the clock on the 90-day travel ban.

U.S. government agencies would determine whether Syria or other nations had made sufficient security improvements to be taken back into the refugee admissions program.

The new order launches a 90-day period for the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to define a new series of requirements for countries to have full participation in U.S. entry programs. For countries that do not comply, the U.S. State Department, the DHS and intelligence agencies can make recommendations on what, if any, restrictions should be imposed: "It's not an all-or-nothing scenario."

The new order spells out detailed categories of people eligible to enter the United States, such as for business or medical travel, or people with family connections or who support the United States. "There are a lot of explicit carve-outs for waivers and given on a case-by-case basis."

Many of Trump's supporters approved of the initial ban but critics said it was unjustified and discriminatory.

U.S. technology firms who had employees affected by the executive order also complained, and some members of Trump's Cabinet urged him to remove Iraqis and green card holders from the list of those affected. The White House was widely criticized for not working with the State Department, the Department of Justice, the Department of Homeland Security and allies in Congress in drawing up the initial ban.

It remains to be seen if the new order will be as vigorously challenged in court as the original.

According to the WSJ, Trump had planned to issue the new order last Wednesday, but the White House decided to push it back. Several people said the delay was political, with officials seeking to capitalize on positive coverage of Mr. Trump’s address to Congress on Tuesday evening, although in light of the latest escalation involving Trump's allegations of wiretapping by Obama, all the "conciliatory" goodwill Trump earned with his Congressional address now seems to have evaporated.