With the recent election of Donald J.
Trump there has been a lot of media buzz on both sides. The left and right have
been arguing about his Presidency ever since his inauguration on January 20th
2017. Whether they argue about his crowd sizes or his cabinet picks they can’t
seem to find any common ground on his Presidency. The biggest fight between
these side have been over his recent executive order, where Donald Trump banned
people coming in from seven different Muslim dominated countries. The countries
included Syria, Iran, Sudan, Lybia, Somalia, Yemen, and Iraq. This was no
permanent ban on immigration from these countries, this executive order only
halted immigration from these countries for approximately 120 days.
Many
leftists in the media claimed that this executive order was un-American, that
you can’t ban a group of people coming into the country base off their
religious beliefs. They supported the protests against this executive order,
claiming they were combatting fascism. Chuck Schumer the senate minority leader
even mustered up some tears in his recent speech claiming “This executive order
was mean spirited and un-American.” Even Hillary Clinton managed to come out
hiding after her stunning defeat to tweet “I stand with thee people gathered
across the country tonight defending our values & our Constitution. This is
not who we are.” However most left wingers got their way recently when a
federal judge from Seattle halted his executive order. Even a federal appeals
panel maintained the halt on the executive order. The U.S. Court of Appeals for
the 9th Circuit ruled 3-0 against Trump on his executive Order. Many
liberals claiming victory against tyranny and celebrated against fascism.
The right claims to support this
executive order was quite plain and simple. Their claim was that this isn’t a
Muslim ban. The top five countries in the world with the largest Muslim
population are Indonesia, Pakistan, India, Bangladesh, and Nigeria, none of the
people coming into the United States from these countries are banned from
entering because this isn’t a Muslim ban. Media members claimed that this is
ultimately a ban based on terror linked countries that was created by the Obama
Administration. The right claims that this isn’t the first time that something
like this has happened and the media is blowing it out of proportion. There
were no protests when Obama banned Iraq refugees for six months in 2011 over
terrorism fears. Obama even banned immigrants six times from most Muslim
countries and the left was completely silent. I believe that most leftist have
a problem with the fact that they think it’s a Muslim ban. However, people
don’t understand how the federal judges ruling goes completely against the law.
Section 212(f) of the Immigration and Nationality act of 1952 states that
“Whenever the President finds that the entry of aliens or of any class of
aliens into the United States detrimental to the interests of the United
States, he may by proclamation, and for such period as he shall deem necessary,
suspend the entry of all aliens or any class of aliens as immigrants or
nonimmigrants, or impose on the entry of aliens any restrictions he may deem
appropriate.” Even if it were a Muslim ban it wouldn’t matter the executive
order was completely legal and the President of the United States has the right
to confirm or deny the right to enter the country. Donald Trump even stated
that he plans to write a new executive order in the near future banning people
entering the united states from the same countries as before. This time I don’t think we should freak out because it’s not a Muslim ban and we should support the President’s
legal right to stop people from entering the country who may cause us harm.
The disputes which have emerged over this president's executive orders on immigration are certainly a good area for our class project. Be careful of how you discuss this policy - you have very little discussion of the actual wording of the policy here, and instead you seem to be comparing the ways different media outlets are describing it.
ReplyDeleteFirst, the term "Muslim Ban" is an excellent example of media framing. As you mention, the executive order is not a ban, but a moratorium. Further, the order includes numerous exceptions (for instance, if a US Military officer would vouch for an individual for having been a cooperative ally in the war effort), and is actually an order which focuses on a foreign government's ability to verify the identity of any individual immigrant. The country's named in the order have largely unstable governments that do not have the capacity to verify the personal identity of everyone seeking asylum. Importantly, the original order ran into some legal difficulty due to the fact that people who already had valid visas found themselves blocked from entry. The president has since amended the executive order - presumably to mitigate these problems.
Be careful of making assertions about immigration law and public understanding of it. Yes, people who are not lawyers can find legal policy to be confusing. You are not an attorney, however, and so you need to cite credible sources to support your claims about how the public understands (or misunderstands) the law.
A number of students have identified this area for this project - and so I would encourage you to dig deeper in order to find a more specific focus. Would you want to focus on perception of this president? or upon the nature of immigration reform? or on the specific trajectory surrounding the initial and then the revised executive order? Good start here - let me know how you plan to focus - and how I can help!