On January 27th, 2017 President Donald Trump issued an executive order suspending visas for travel to the United States from a number of countries with Muslim minority populations such as Iraq, Iran and Syria for a period of a hundred and twenty days. This order also blocked refugees from the ongoing war in Syria from receiving asylum in the United States. The stated goal for this was to “protect the American people from terrorist attacks by foreign nationals.” The order went into immediate effect and over the weekend led to hundreds of travelers to the US being unexpectedly turned away upon arrival, including people on pre-existing visas who were returning from visits abroad. This included US nationals and permanent residents with green cards in a number of cases (Rosenberg).
This decision was met by immediate protests and legal challenges by groups such as the ACLU on the grounds that it violated constitutional protections against religious discrimination (the order included provisions exempting Christians from the seven countries targeted by the order, though oddly enough there were no exceptions for Jews) and the right to due process and habeas corpus. A federal judge in Brooklyn found this persuasive enough to issue an immediate stay of the executive order and order a halt to the deportations being carried out under it. Critics of the executive order described it alternately as cruel, racist, unconstitutional and the act of a tyrannical fascist.
Works Cited
Rosenberg, Eli and Liam Stack. “Banned from the US: ‘You Need to go Back to Your Country.” nytimes.com, 28 Jan 2017. https://www.nytimes.com/2017/01/28/us/us-immigration-ban.html?action=click&contentCollection=U.S.&module=RelatedCoverage®ion=Marginalia&pgtype=article. Accessed 31 Jan 2017.
Shear, Michael and Nicholas Kulish and Alan Feuer. “Judge Blocks Trump Order on Refugees Amid Chaos and Outcry Worldwide.” nytimes.com, 28 Jan 2017. https://www.nytimes.com/2017/01/28/us/refugees-detained-at-us-airports-prompting-legal-challenges-to-trumps-immigration-order.html?_r=0. Accessed 28 Jan 2017.
Trump, Donald. “EXECUTIVE ORDER: PROTECTING THE NATION FROM FOREIGN TERRORIST ENTRY INTO THE UNITED STATES.” Whitehouse.gov, 27 Jan 2017, https://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2017/01/27/executive-order-protecting-nation-foreign-terrorist-entry-united-states. Accessed 31 Jan 2017.
