On Jan. 27, President Trump signed an executive order that halted refugee admission for 120 days and temporarily banned entry from seven countries of concern — Iraq, Iran, Syria, Yemen, Sudan, Libya and Somalia — all in the name of better vetting.
As a result of the executive order, protests have sprung up at various airports across the country and has sparked the hashtag #NoBanNoWall. The Trump administration decided to sign the EO at 5:30 p.m. on a Friday, which is the basis of all the confusion surrounding what the EO actually said and what the provisions were. No one knew what was actually going on.
I’d be remiss if I didn’t point out that none of this should have come as a surprise. Trump promised all of these actions during his campaign for the presidency. Kudos to Trump for doing what he said he was going to do, whether you agree with him or not.
What’s in the EO
There has been a lot of hysteria surrounding the EO; it seems like people just want to react without reading what’s in it. So let me explain what the EO actually does.
First, the EO places a 120 day halt on refugee admissions to the U.S. so that the government can improve the current vetting process. The EO caps the number of refugee admissions at 50,000 per year. This isn’t crazy by any means; this has been the cap for the past four years.
Obama expanded the number of refugees admitted from the W. Bush administration, so Trump is not narrowing the number of refugees admitted — he is continuing an already existing policy.
Second, the EO places a 90-day ban on people entering from Iraq, Iran, Syria, Yemen, Sudan, Libya and Somalia. These 7 countries are not just picked out of thin air.
They come from Obama-era policy. The EO specifically refers to a policy drafted by the Obama administration: “From countries referred to in section 217(a)(12) of the INA, 8 U.S.C. 1187(a)(12).” The section of that policy is entitled “Not Present in Iraq, Syria, or any other country or area of concern.”
Then, in early 2016, the Obama Department of Homeland Security named the five other countries of concern. This is why these seven countries were named and not the other countries with terrorist ties.
The EO does mention religion when it comes to those being persecuted for their faith — i.e. Christians in the Middle East. And for those of you thinking that this kind of religious test is unacceptable, it’s actually required by law. As stated in Section 1158 of Title 8, US Code, “the applicant must establish that…religion…was or will be at least one central reason for persecuting the applicant.”
What the EO is not
For the love of everything that is good, stop calling this a Muslim ban; it is not.
The word “Islam” or “Muslim” is not found in the EO at any point. Anyone who says that the EO is a Muslim ban is clearly misinformed or lying.
If this was a Muslim ban, then the 40 or so Muslim majority countries would also be on the list. Indonesia — the largest Muslim majority nation — is not on the list. The media’s claims that the EO is a Muslim ban is perpetuating the fake news they so love to hate.
The EO is clearly constitutional. Those claiming that the EO is unconstitutional are giving two pieces of reason: the 14th Amendment and whether Trump has the ability to do what the EO states.
Firstly, Trump does have the ability to do this: it falls under the purview of the executive branch.
Those who are claiming the EO is unconstitutional are trying to prove that the Constitution applies to non-citizens, which is blatantly false. The inalienable rights apply to everyone, the Bill of Rights does not.
The 14th amendment states, “No state shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any state deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.”
This would push the narrative that the Constitution applies to everyone, if the 14th Amendment didn’t begin by stating, “All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the state wherein they reside,” which negates the application argument.
Green Card and Legal Status
The biggest confusion about the EO comes from the fact that no one seemed to know whether the EO applied to green card holders and those with legal status. According to CNN, the DHS initially said that the EO did not apply to those with special status. But, Trump advisers Steve Bannon and Stephen Miller interpreted the EO to mean the exact opposite and thus overruled the DHS.
This whole saga is ridiculous. Those with legal status and those who hold green cards have already been through extreme vetting. This is just pure incompetence from the Trump team. And if it was done deliberately, they must be called out for it.
It remains to be seen whether this EO actually does its job, but it most likely will not have an effect. The level of hysteria surrounding this EO only reinforces the fact that there is an epidemic of fake news in this country.
Assistant opinion editor Jorden Smith is a political science and creative writing junior and can be reached at [email protected]
Trump is weathering the leftists media and protester storm well. And his strength is immunizing Republican Leaders with stronger backbones, thus encouraging them to say ‘enough is enough,’ and now their beginning to tell the Democrats to go pound sand.
Just this morning HuffPo reported that Orrin Hatch’s Senate committee “advanced Rep. Tom Price (R-Ga.), Trump’s nominee to lead the Department of Health and Human Services, and Steve Mnuchin, the pick for treasury secretary, out of committee favorably, on a 14-0 vote. Price and Mnuchin are now cleared to receive a full vote on the Senate floor.” They will get their vote, and with Democrat support, seeing as 10 Senators from Red States are up for election next year.
Yes, Democrat committee members did what castrated liberal men do when they lose their chance at hall monitor. They boycott; they run away like the cowards they are. Hatch, and his newly discovered backbone had had enough, and waived the rules allowing to the committee vote without the cowardly Democrats.
The manufactured protests, paid in good part by George Soros, who recently lost $1 billion dollars, cannot possibly be sustained. The Socialists are in effect providing a flu shot to those even close to Right of Center, thus becoming less sensitized towards the ignorance that the Soros protesters and Democrat leaders spout. More people are tuning them out, because the rhetoric and actions never change, and is quite the opposite behavior than normal citizens would exhibit.
Thankfully, most Americans can see through the tripe that the Socialists have thrown into the air. They know that what President Trump is doing is the Right Thing. And 120 Days is a fair amount of time to formulate policies for a more thorough vetting process of visitors/immigrants of those countries that harbor and support terrorism. Hopefully, with vast majority of the vetting done in their home countries.
Trump is anti-American. End of story. Having the loudest mouth doesn’t make you right- it makes you loud & proud.
EFA … or PinkPokkadot.
What is anti-American about enforcing the current laws on the books. Do you realize how ignorant you sound?
You Socialists have not seen the bad side of Socialism. You buy all the equality and fairness being bandied about.
Study North Korea EFA, where everyone is equal in the Socialist way. There are plenty of videos out there to show how people live in that Anti-American atmosphere.
The only person who is totally free in North Korea is Kim Jong Un. He has the power of life and death over his people, as we recently saw in the killing of his brother Nam.
Un has the power to relax or strengthen policies, but he has no will to give freedoms of speech to his people. No one in North Korea can criticize Kim Jong Un without being jailed or executed.
EFA … you have the freedom to say what you want, as do I, but know that the consequences of your Socialist speech play into the hands of Kim Jong Un and Barack Obama.
And believe me, Obama is jealous of Un’s powers.
Firstly, I am not a socialist- I just don’t think of Trump as the most fit person to run an entire country. His views on minorities are the reason that children are being bullied in schools. And whether he admits to it or not, a President who is a bully is an example to millions across the country that have kept their real opinions towards minorities quiet. With a president that’s a bully, they no longer need to be tolerant of people that are different from them.
Ofcourse, he has several good policies as well! I don’t think Obama Care was ever really a good idea, so good riddens to that. I just appreciated his respect for all people. Perhaps over time, Trump will get better at this.
Anyway, a dictator in North Korea isn’t a good parallel to this conversation.
Secondly, no one is “jealous” of the UN’s powers. For the most part, let’s be honest- the superpowers have the most say in what the UN does and doesn’t.
Thirdly- are you hearing yourself? No where have I said socialism is a good idea. You just need a tangent to go off on, don’t you? 😛 It’s quite hilarious.
EFA … there is a difference between Kim Jong Un and the United Nations. Un and Nam are half-brothers, with the surname Kim Jong.
I was not writing about the UN. It’s a worthless organization, where countries that violate human rights are often placed in committees that oversee human rights.
There is nothing to be jealous about in the UN, but with Kim Jong Un’s absolute power in North Korea, Obama is certainly jealous.
I have to believe that you put your full support in backing Hillary 2016, just as I supported Trump.
And I submit that Trump is the right person for the job. He has been in a position of decision making for so long, that it comes natural to him. He plays the media like a Stradivarius. Yes, he may sound crude to many on the Left, but his Presidency has been more transparent than Obama’s ever was, and he follows the rule of law, like Obama never could.
Hillary Clinton, and now let’s be honest EFA … if she wasn’t married to Bill Clinton would never have had a chance to be Senator, SecState, or the Democratic Nominee for President. All she did was stay married to a cheating husband that embarrassed her at every turn.
I invite you to find one accomplishment attributable to her, which stumped the majority of her supporters during the campaign. Hillary gave the Russians 20% of our uranium stock, her Russian Reset button was a complete joke.
stay in school jorden and keep taking those constitutional law classes. you may actually learn something someday.
OK. Just what kind of citizenship are WE talking about? The Section 1 of the 14th Amendment deals with “US citizens” only, i.e.”statutory” citizens! It does NOT deal with the American people, American citizens or anything other than statutory US citizens or those created by naturalization in the United States, i.e., the United States Corporation which is only DC those born there or residing there.
It appears that Trump has “reconstituted” the “lawful” Republic and it is no longer the United States Corporation, a democracy, but is now the dejure United States created by the Constitution inside the DC enclave and which is NOT a State at all but only the seat of America’s constrained, limited government of “limited” “powers” .
Trump HAS placed the people back at their proper place in the hierarchy, at the top of the pyramid. because the people, themselves, created the Constitution and they gave only limited power to the government, NOT the unlimited, “unlawful” overreach it has usurped. The people are NOT subservient to the government but superior to it.
Did you notice the flags in Trump’s campaign? A 48 star flag without the military gold fringe! …And the flags now in the oval office? …Not a fringe to be seen!