The Trump administration has backflipped on the application of its comprehensive immigration order issued last week.
The Department of Homeland Security has issued a statement deeming all permanent residents will be exempted from the order under national interest provisions.
"In applying the provisions of the president's executive order, I hereby deem the entry of lawful permanent residents to be in the national interest," the department said in a two-sentence statement.
"Accordingly, absent the receipt of significant derogatory information indicating a serious threat to public safety and welfare, lawful permanent resident status will be a dispositive factor in our case-by-case determinations."
The administration had earlier said people holding green cards, making them legal permanent US residents, were included in President Donald Trump's executive action temporarily barring people from Iraq, Syria, Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan and Yemen from entering the United States.
Earlier on Monday, President Donald Trump insisted that his executive order was "not a Muslim ban," after it was met with global outrage and huge protests across the United States.
Trump said in an unusual official written statement: "America is a proud nation of immigrants and we will continue to show compassion to those fleeing oppression, but we will do so while protecting our own citizens and border. America has always been the land of the free and home of the brave."
"To be clear, this is not a Muslim ban, as the media is falsely reporting. This is not about religion -- this is about terror and keeping our country safe," he said, adding that more 40 Muslim countries were not affected by his order.
Trump signed the temporary ban as an executive order on Friday afternoon, suspending the arrival of all refugees for at least 120 days and barring visa holders from the seven nations.
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