Trump's better order — and the border

The White House corrected an early mistake and issued a narrower and much improved executive order curbing visas from terrorist hotbeds. The order itself is better, the process of making it was better and the rollout of the order was far better.

Now we hope the Departments of State, Justice and Homeland Security get busy crafting a new vetting process for refugees and other visitors from places where terrorism thrives, so that they can move beyond this blunt, temporary order.

Trump's Jan. 27 executive order was poorly considered, highly disruptive and sloppily executed. We editorialized right away that Trump should scrap it. It hadn't gone through the proper channels and lacked expert input and some basic lawyering. Substantively, it revoked visas and even barred green-card holders from returning home to America.

Trump's new order avoids these pitfalls. It explicitly does not apply to current visa holders. This is important as a matter of justice and of political and legal vulnerability. Plaintiffs against the original order had legal standing because many of the affected people already lived here, or had been granted the right to travel here. The new rule applies only to foreigners who are not yet based or headed here, making it harder for them to claim legal standing.

Cooperation among relevant agencies was made visible Monday, when Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, Attorney General Jeff Sessions and Homeland Security Secretary John Kelly announced the order.