Trumps surrogates tried to explain away his executive order banning people from seven countries with majority Muslim populations. Insisting that this was not a Muslim ban former NYC Mayor Rudolph “A noun a verb and 9/11” Giuliani told Fox News commentator Jeanine Piro that Trump asked him to find a way to legally ban Muslims, as he had promised during his campaign. Guiliani claimed that his was about the danger posed by these countries to the US.
Pirro wanted to know how the Trump administration came up with those seven countries and asked, “How did the president decide the seven countries, I understand a permanent ban on the refugees, talk to me.”
Instead of just explaining why they chose the seven countries that they did, which didn’t include Pakistan, Saudi Arabia or any country that has a Trump property in it, Rudy went off and let the cat out of the bag.
Giuliani excitedly replied, “I’ll tell you the whole history of it! So, when [Trump] first announced it, he said, ‘Muslim ban.’ He called me up. He said, “Put a commission together. Show me the right way to do it legally.”Rudy continued, “I put a commission together with Judge [Mike] Mukasey, with Congressman [Mike] McCaul, [Rep.] Pete King; whole group of other very expert lawyers on this and what we did was, we focused on — instead of religion, danger! The areas of the world that create danger for us! Which is a factual basis, not a religious basis. Perfectly legal, perfectly sensible. And that’s what the ban is based on.”
In other words, Muslims are a danger to the US. Sorry, Rudy, but an unconstitutional edict by any other name is still unconstitutional.
Almost immediately after this ban was announced on Friday, Holocaust Remembrance Day (talk about bad optics), people across the country swarmed to international airports to protest the EO and support those who were already being detained and those in transit.
By Saturday night, the New York ACLU went to Federal Court to block the implementations of this order and obtain the release of those who were being detained. U.S. District Court Judge Ann Donnelly issued an emergency stay temporarily halting the removal of individuals detained.
On Sunday, spontaneously thousands of people took to the streets in numerous cities across the US to stand with all immigrants and protest this illegal ban by this administration.
As Elise Foley and Igor Bobic explain at Huffington Post, Trump’s latest argument for the ban is bunk
President Donald Trump on Monday defended the swiftness of his executive order banning people from seven Muslim-majority countries from entering the U.S. ― which wreaked havoc at airports across the nation over the weekend ― as a move that was necessary to keep Americans safe.
If the “ban,” as Trump called it, took effect a week after he signed it, potential terrorists would receive advance notice and thus infiltrate the country via its refugee resettlement or tourist visa programs.
That argument isn’t based in reality, however. People abroad can’t just “rush” into the U.S. The screening process for refugees takes 18 to 24 months, on average. The process for obtaining other types of visas also takes weeks at the very least. [..]
The Trump administration, for all its criticism of refugee vetting, has given little indication of how it thinks the already lengthy process should be done differently. The current system is a multistep process that involves the Department of Homeland Security, the State Department, the FBI, the Department of Defense and other security agencies.
Most refugees first go through screening with the United Nations High Commissioner on Refugees, which refers a small portion of them to the United States. The U.S. government then collects its own information on them, including through in-person interviews and fingerprints. The government compares its findings with the U.N. files and information on what was happening on the ground in their country to see whether the person is being truthful and consistent. For example, if someone gives varying dates for when they left their home, or claims a terrorist attack happened at a time when it did not.
Government officials then check refugees’ information through multiple databases. Syrian refugees go through additional screening measures, according to the Department of Homeland Security.
It was pointed out by FBI Director James Comey that there is no completely risk-free way to screen everyone but said that screening was continually improving . Trump’s EO gives no indication of how he will improve the current process other than his unconstitutional proposal to ban all Muslims from entering the US which will fed into the hands of extremists to recruit more terrorists and foment his bigoted base to attack Muslims here.
Despite the court’s order, some Customs and Border Control agents are still defying it deporting several people holding green cards back to war zones clearly putting those lives at risk. Those who ignore this order are in contempt of court and should be charged and arrested.
Yes, Donald, we are a nation of laws and they pertain to you, too.
No mater how Trump and his cronies try to twist this, it a clear violation of the First Amendment that prohibits the creation of a religious test.