Ladies and gentlemen, please hear my heart on this. The mainstream media and the left seek to divide our nation. They do this by twisting facts and guiding the national conversation in a direction they find advantageous.
The recent hullabaloo over President Trump’s immigration order that effectively “pauses” refugee migration for 120 days, is proof of the manipulation.
The media has average Americans calling it a “Muslim ban.” But the order does no such thing.
Here’s a short explanation from the NY Times:
President Trump on Friday afternoon approved a sweeping executive order that suspended entry of all refugees to the United States for 120 days, barred Syrian refugees indefinitely, and blocked entry into the United States for 90 days for citizens of seven predominantly Muslim countries: Iran, Iraq, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria and Yemen. It also barred green card holders from those countries from re-entering the United States, the Department of Homeland Security said, though the administration said exemptions could be granted.
Okay, let’s take this piece-by-piece.
First: Refugee entry is blocked for 120 days, but as the New York Times points out, the order effectively means that instead of accepting 50,000 refugees this year… we’ll only accept 25,000. While it will make life more difficult for some refugees, the United States will still be the most welcoming nation in the world for refugees. (Not only do we welcome more refugees than most other nations in the world, we spend more money on them than any other nation.)
Second: Syrian refugees have been “indefinitely barred.” The Syrian civil war continues to be the biggest driver of world refugees but it also delivers the most danger to nations accepting refugees. Over the past few years ISIS has been training and releasing terrorists into the refugee pool in an effort to “sneak” terrorists into Western nations. The vetting process has thus far proven to be inadequate at screening these dangers out, which led to candidate Trump arguing on the campaign trail for a moratorium on Syrian refugees. Now that he is President, he is following through with that campaign promise. However, his order does leave room for reopening the door to Syrian refugees if U.S. Refugee Admissions Program (USRAP) can improve their vetting program.
Third: There is a 90-day ban on migration from 7 (6 not including Syria) predominantly Muslim nations, but the ban isn’t on Muslims, it’s on ANY citizen from those nations. Why these nations in particular? Because either their nation is an enemy of the United States or there is a heavy terrorist presence in their nations. These 7 nations — Iran, Iraq, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria and Yemen — are all hotbeds of terrorist activity and are all (except for Iran) currently quite unstable politically. These 7 nations present the most danger for the Western world, even as we try to help them overcome their problems with radical Islamic terrorism.
Fourth, and last: The order could also be applied to green card holders who were permanent residents of the United States. This was a bad move, no doubt. There is no good reason to not allow a permanent legal resident back into the country (though other Presidents have done this in the past as well). However, this portion of the order seems to have already been rescinded.
The point: The order may be wrong-headed (maybe) but the reaction to the order from liberals has been absolutely insane.
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