It's not Trump's Muslim Ban

By jamesbaxley
 
Protests have broken out at the John F Kennedy (JFK) International Airport in New York City and airports in Chicago, San Francisco, Washington DC, and other cities across the nation Friday night and throughout the weekend. 

Even the United Nations, Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International, and Amnesty International USA are chiming in. Amnesty International USA described the executive order as “dangerous" while Amnesty International UK claimed it was "shocking and appalling."

One could hear mundane chants from the hashtag warriors cutting through sensible, legal immigration policy’s like a set of fingernails scratching a chalkboard such as "No ban, no wall, sanctuary for all," "No hate, no fear, immigrants are welcome here," “No ban no wall,” “No hate, no fear, refugees are welcome here” and “U.S.A.”

When Democratic Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer learned that President Donald Trump’s executive order 13769, “Protecting the Nation from Foreign Terrorist Entry into the United States” was signed, he said the executive order was “backward and nasty.” He continued with, “Tears are running down the cheeks of the Statue of Liberty tonight.” The executive order in its most basic function suspends the U.S. Refugee Admissions Program (USRAP) for 120 days.

Is Schumer uninformed or just ignorant of the [underreported] fact that the “ghost writer” of this executive order was Barack Obama? More on that in a moment.

Trump’s executive order 13769 is claimed to ban Muslims from entering the United States and everybody is up in arms. The “Muslim ban,” (as the executive order is known as) is according to Trump "is not a Muslim ban, as the media is falsely reporting."

Trump explains, "there are over 40 different countries worldwide that are majority Muslim that are not affected by this order.” Trump concluded, His executive order says that people are barred from entry into the United States who are from Iraq, Syria, Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan and Yemen.

Why not Turkey? Or Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, and Egypt? If you rely on media sources such as CNN, MSNBC, or ABC et al, you will be severely misled for they are purveyors of “fake news.” They will tell you it’s because Trump has business dealings in these countries. Maybe so, but that isn’t the origin of Trumps ban.

The executive order is about protecting Americans from terrorism but nowhere in Trumps executive order does it mention the seven countries by name, except for Syria. It directs the reader to section 217(a) (12) of the INA, 8 U.S.C. 1187(a) (12).

Executive order 13769 states that the “issuance of visas” to nationals of Iraq, Syria, Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, and Yemen will be suspended. It also goes on to state that he [Trump] will “suspend entry” for 90 days “immigrant and nonimmigrant entry” into the U.S.

But nowhere in 13769 does it mention the seven countries everybody is talking about. Where did this magic number come from? 

In December 2015, senators from both parties of Congress passed a law – the Visa Waiver Program Improvement and Terrorist Travel Prevention Act of 2015. 

It removed waiver benefits for foreign nationals who had visited Iraq, Syria, Iran, and Sudan since March 2011. In February 2016, Libya, Somalia, and Yemen were added to the list. So it was U.S. policy under Obama’s presidency to target and restrict people from entering the country. 

Barack Obama signed the Act into law on December 18, 2015, as part of the Omnibus Appropriations Act of FY2016.

I don’t remember seeing any rioting in the streets or protesting in the airports after Act of 2015 was passed. No sit-ins or human walls blocking entrances to airports. No over turned vehicles or burning tires. 

The countries listed the Visa Waiver Program Improvement and Terrorist Travel Prevention Act of 2015, Syria, Sudan, Iran, Iraq, Yemen and Libya all forbid Israeli visitors with Israeli passports and Israeli visas from entering their countries. 

Where’s the outrage? Why is there no mention of this in the MSM and their reporting? I had to dig deep to find this information myself.

Somali is the only country which doesn’t ban those with Israeli passports.

Libya enforces a separate traveler’s ban on Iranian, Syrian, and Palestinian visitors.  

So now ten days after his retirement, Obama is speaking out. According to Kevin Lewis, a spokesperson for Obama, Obama “fundamentally disagrees” with discriminating based on “faith or religion.” 

This is the text book definition of hypocrisy. His administration passes a law which suspends entry into the U.S. for certain groups. Then, when Trump decides to use it, Obama calls him a racist for discriminating based on “race and religion” even though he is the one who passed the law.

In addition to passing the Visa Waiver Program Improvement and Terrorist Travel Prevention Act of 2015 in which Trump is utilizing, Obama imposed new, more extensive background checks on Iraqi refugees. This caused a significant drop in refugee arrivals from Iraq from 18,251 in 2010, 6,339 in 2011 and a rise after his ban back to 16,369 in 2012. 

As a candidate for the presidency, Trump's "Contract with the American Voter" pledged to suspend immigration from "terror-prone regions.” He later proposed to suspend immigration from "areas of the world" with a history of terrorism after the Orlando nightclub shooting. 

Trump is one of a few, if any U.S. presidents to not only keep his campaign promises, but to act on them quickly. He is only in his second week of his presidency and he has already met several of his promises.