Trump’s Second Attempt to Keep America Safe from Islamic Terrorism

One way President Donald Trump tried to fulfill campaign promises to curb immigration and keep Americans safe was to sign an executive order to temporarily ban the admission of people from several Middle Eastern and African countries for 90 days until properly vetted, suspend “refugee” resettlement for 120 days, and bar Syrian “refugees” indefinitely.

But a federal court blocked his attempt.

The president announced a revised executive order this week, one that now excludes Iraq from the list and expressly exempts green card and visa holders.

The Heritage Foundation’s Hans von Spakovsky in the Daily Signal called the revised language “an important revision because it voids the due process concerns that the 9th Circuit expressed—namely, that individuals who had already received approval to enter or reside in the United States might have that right taken away from them without a review and appeal process.”

Why is Iraq off the list?

“Apparently, the administration conducted negotiations with Iraq last month that resulted in Iraq agreeing to increase its cooperation in vetting Iraqis applying for travel into the U.S.,” von Spakovsky wrote.

The president has the legal authority to temporarily or permanently ban classes of people from entering the country he deems necessary for national security, and these classes include people who fall into certain religious, racial, and national origin categories.

Von Spakovsky noted that the 120-day suspension on refugee entry remains in place.

The order also makes a point of refuting claims that were raised in various lawsuits that the original order was intended to discriminate against Muslims: It “did not provide a basis for discriminating for or against members of any particular religion.”

The original order did allow for prioritization of refugee claims, once the 120-day suspension period lapses, from persecuted religious minorities—but that priority “applied to refugees from every nation, including those in which Islam is a minority religion, and it applied to minority sects within a religion.”

President Trump will never satisfy all the people who voted for him. Some would like to see a longer ban on Muslim admissions because worldwide terrorism is overwhelmingly Islamic. Why import violence when we have more than enough of our own?

Do you think this executive order will withstand legal challenges?

Photo credit: elmoree (Creative Commons) – Some rights reserved