There is much that can be legitimately debated regarding President Trumps executive order on immigration but the February 1-7 Urban Journal was uncharacteristically for Ms. Towler light on facts and reasoned discourse, and excessively alarmist. Here are some of the facts missing from that piece:
1. It was not Trump, but President Obama who concluded that the 7 countries at issue are so dangerous that if a European citizen or anyone else eligible to enter the US without a visa merely visited them, that citizen lost the right to enter our country without a visa.
2. The Trump order says that for 90 days, citizens of these countries are denied entry into the US while we investigate how better to review a visa applicants possible terror connections.
3. Case-by-case exceptions are available.
4. The 1965 law that some cite in opposition to the order was not a security measure it was directed toward previous immigration quotas designed to preserve the countrys ethnic balance. The presidents constitutional power over national security takes precedence over a congressional anti-discrimination clause. Also, prior administrations agreed with Trumps interpretation e.g., President Carter banned all visas issued to Iranian citizens after his Justice Department concluded that national origin exclusions were legal, notwithstanding the 1965 law.
The order certainly could have been planned, implemented and explained better, but lets stick with the facts. It is true that terrorism comes from many sources, domestic as well as foreign, but I for one am certainly willing to trust the Obama Administrations designation of these 7 specific countries as particularly dangerous.
Re: “Trump turns nativist rants into dangerous, live action”
There is much that can be legitimately debated regarding President Trumps executive order on immigration but the February 1-7 Urban Journal was uncharacteristically for Ms. Towler light on facts and reasoned discourse, and excessively alarmist. Here are some of the facts missing from that piece:
1. It was not Trump, but President Obama who concluded that the 7 countries at issue are so dangerous that if a European citizen or anyone else eligible to enter the US without a visa merely visited them, that citizen lost the right to enter our country without a visa.
2. The Trump order says that for 90 days, citizens of these countries are denied entry into the US while we investigate how better to review a visa applicants possible terror connections.
3. Case-by-case exceptions are available.
4. The 1965 law that some cite in opposition to the order was not a security measure it was directed toward previous immigration quotas designed to preserve the countrys ethnic balance. The presidents constitutional power over national security takes precedence over a congressional anti-discrimination clause. Also, prior administrations agreed with Trumps interpretation e.g., President Carter banned all visas issued to Iranian citizens after his Justice Department concluded that national origin exclusions were legal, notwithstanding the 1965 law.
The order certainly could have been planned, implemented and explained better, but lets stick with the facts. It is true that terrorism comes from many sources, domestic as well as foreign, but I for one am certainly willing to trust the Obama Administrations designation of these 7 specific countries as particularly dangerous.