It Is Still a Muslim Ban.
President Donald Trump Monday morning signed his revised Muslim travel ban executive order. Here are 10 things you should know about it:
- The Dept. of Homeland Security produced a document that strikes down the entire basis for Trump’s ban. As MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow reported exclusively last week, a Department of Homeland Security intelligence assessment document “from the Office of Intelligence and Analysis, makes the case that most foreign-born, U.S.-based violent extremists are likely not radicalized when they come to the U.S., but rather become radicalized after living in the U.S. for a number of years.” That assessment tracked “88 violent, foreign-born extremists in the United States. More than half of them had been in the U.S. more than 10 years before they were indicted or killed.”
- The new ban narrows the number of countries from seven to 6, excluding Iraq.
- The new ban no longer provides a preference for Christians to be allowed in to the country. The wording from the original ban mentioned “minority religions” in those seven countires, and Trump had specifically said he wanted to protect Christians.
- The ban leaves out green card holdrers, a major problem that cropped up almost immediately when Trump’s original ban was signed.
- This new ban does not go into effect until March 16.
- The Trump administration went to great lengths to try to craft the new document to ensure the courts do not see it as an unconstitutional Muslim ban.
But Trump has previously talked about it as a Muslim ban. As People for the American Way’s Brian Tashman notes, Trump’s original call for a Muslim ban is still on his website. On Dec. 7, 2015, Trump had said: “Donald J. Trump is calling for a total and complete shutdown of Muslims entering the United States until our country’s representatives can figure out what the hell is going on.” - There has been no post-9/11 attack on U.S. soil by anyone from these six countries:
- The administration states it will produce reports on the ban every six months, allowing them to include more countries if they deem necessary.
- In a nutshell, this is the Trump administration’s reasoning for the ban: “until the assessment of current screening and vetting procedures required by section 2 of this order is completed, the risk of erroneously permitting entry of a national of one of these countries who intends to commit terrorist acts or otherwise harm the national security of the United States is unacceptably high. Accordingly, while that assessment is ongoing, I am imposing a temporary pause on the entry of nationals from Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria, and Yemen, subject to categorical exceptions and case-by-case waivers, as described in section 3 of this order.”
- Basically, it says, refugees need not apply: “The Secretary of State shall suspend travel of refugees into the United States under the USRAP [U.S. Refugees Admissions Program], and the Secretary of Homeland Security shall suspend decisions on applications for refugee status, for 120 days after the effective date of this order, subject to waivers pursuant to subsection (c) of this section.”
Extra: It is still a Muslim ban. Via ACLU, which has been fighting the administration in court:
Extra extra: Trump signed it privately, no media or press present.
More:
UPDATE:
Washington Post foreign affairs writer Ishaan Tharoor†makes some excellent points via Twitter:
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