“The instant backlash, which has culminated in thousands of protesters creating chaos at the nation’s airports, is the result more of knee-jerk emotion than a sober assessment of Trump’s policy”.
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More than 900 US State Department employees have signed on to a letter claiming the ban would not improve national security.
White House press secretary Sean Spicer didn’t respond to multiple shouted questions at his daily briefing about Obama’s statement, which broke after the briefing had started.
President Trump, who consistently campaigned on the issue, recently used his executive power to order a temporary 90-day travel ban, which affects seven countries. The enormity of 9/11 may partially explain it, but, whatever the reasons, the US hasn’t been the wide-open country both Trump supporters and opponents imagine. Trump even stated in one of his interviews that his travel ban policy is not far from Obama’s policy of banning visas for Iraqi refugees. The U.S. program allowing individuals from other countries to take refuge has been put on a 120 day suspension, and the Syrian refugee program has been suspended indefinitely.
“There’s never been anything similar to this with immigration”, said Dr. David Branham, Associate Professor of Political Science with UH-Downtown.
A poll from the right-leaning polling firm Rasmussen Reports indicated Monday more than half of likely voters support President Donald Trump’s ban on refugees from seven countries until the government can do a better job of keeping terrorists out.
Maha Hilal, the Washington-based executive director of National Coalition to Protect Civil Freedoms, made the remarks while discussing a new poll about the American public’s view of the Trump administration’s immigration policies.
Tourism and travel advocacy groups say it’s too early to quantify the actual impact of the executive order, but acknowledge it’s important to strike a balance between security and free travel. “It’s harder for people to see the logic behind this”.
The British government’s plans to honor President Trump with a state visit later this year are sparking increasing opposition following his order on immigration.
“I think the order is going to make the threat worse”, said Morell.
With members of the media collectively losing their minds over President Trump’s executive order on refugees and border security, it is critical to cut through the earsplitting noise to actually understand what the order entails.
Sudan’s government has been working to be taken off the US list of state sponsors of terrorism – just weeks ago, President Obama eased economic sanctions against the country that had stood for 20 years. “That’s really important context here”.
In reality, there is no precedent for Trump’s executive order, which has caused confusion as well as controversy; chiefly around the subject of why countries such as Egypt, Lebanon, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Mali, Colombia and Venezuela have been left off the list, given the United States regards them as safe havens for terrorists.
One month ago, Syria’s President Bashar al-Assad had praised Trump’s approach to terrorism and said that the new president would be a “natural ally”.
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Helima Croft, global head of commodity strategy at RBC Capital Markets, noted that in Iraq, U.S. energy companies that employ Americans could face challenges if a parliamentary measure calling for reciprocal restrictions becomes law.
