When Donald Trump's administration put together its controversial executive order on immigration, it was Steve Bannon — the populist firebrand fast emerging as the president's right-hand man — pushing a hard line.
Senior officials at the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) interpreted the order to mean that lawful permanent residents -—green card holders — who hailed from the seven Muslim-majority countries targeted in the immigration order would not face additional screening when they entered the country.
But they were quickly overruled by Bannon, who is Trump's chief strategist and oversaw the drafting of the executive order along with White House senior policy adviser Stephen Miller, a close ally of Bannon's, the officials said.