What’s the issue? Donald Trump has signed a new travel ban, one that’s meant to stand up in court. The ban will suspend the US visa program for citizens of Iran, Somalia, Sudan, Yemen, Syria, and Libya for 90 days and will suspend the Syrian refugee program for 120 days. Unlike the first version of this ban rolled out on January 27th, citizens of Iraq are not included in the ban, and citizens from the affected countries who already have visas or are permanent residences will still be allowed into the United States.
Why do I care? Banning citizens from select countries creates undo hardships for the many law-abiding, peaceful residence of those countries, and does little to keep the United States safer. In fact, a Department of Homeland Security report found that “country of citizenship is unlikely to be a reliable indicator of potential terrorist activity” and that in fact people from 26 different countries have been inspired to carry out terrorist attacks on the United States (not just the 6 banned here). In the meantime, prominent academics, scholars, those fleeing violence and poverty, and others who seek opportunities in the United States will be denied entry. Additionally, this ban still targets countries only with a Muslim majority (instead of those with high levels of terrorist activity, for example), and is thus an egregious assault on the Muslim faith.
What do to if you care too:
- Call your senators and representative to tell them you do not support this ban. Find your senators here and your representative here. Here’s a sample script for what you can say (it’s from the first ban, but it’ll still work). You can even download this app, which will find your congresspeople and provide sample scripts for a variety of topics.
- Email your senators using ACLU’s handy template.
- Donate to help support refugees who are affected by this ban. Some good options include IRC, MercyCorps, and the Syrian American Medical Society. You can also give to the ACLU, who has promised to fight this ban in court.
- Volunteer to support refugees. IRC has volunteer opportunities available here.
- Join a protest near you. Check facebook, twitter, and your local paper to see if there are any protests happening near where you live. Here’s one happening on March 11th outside the White House.
Have more ideas? Leave a comment below!
Persistence 
Hey Sarah,
Congrats on your first blog post! And I’m excited to be the first commenter! I think you make some valid points, but I must strongly contest your last point: “this ban still targets countries only with a Muslim majority (instead of those with high levels of terrorist activity, for example), and is thus an egregious assault on the Muslim faith.”
Go here https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Islam_by_country#Table and sort the table by the third column. Notice how many countries in the world are “Muslim-majority.” To say that a restriction on citizens of 6 countries somehow amounts to an assault on an entire religion…well let’s just say that in other circumstances you would be arguing that a generalization like that is deeply offensive.
There are plenty of legitimate criticisms that can be made of the current administration. No need play the religion card.
-Andrew
LikeLike
Thanks, Andrew!
I see your point, but my point comes at it slightly differently. If you look up countries that are considered “Terrorist Safe Havens” by the US State Department, you’ll see that the only countries included in Trump’s travel ban are those with populations over 90% Muslim. This is coupled with the fact that Trump has repeatedly claimed to want to ban all Muslims from entering the United States and that the original travel ban included an exemption for religious minorities (non-Muslims). So, with all of this information taken together, it seems to send a clear message that particularly Muslims from these countries are not welcome here.
LikeLike
Some of these are fair points. But I think it’s worth looking at the so-called “exemption” from the original executive order:
“(b) Upon the resumption of USRAP admissions, the Secretary of State, in consultation with the Secretary of Homeland Security, is further directed to make changes, to the extent permitted by law, to prioritize refugee claims made by individuals on the basis of religious-based persecution, provided that the religion of the individual is a minority religion in the individual’s country of nationality. Where necessary and appropriate, the Secretaries of State and Homeland Security shall recommend legislation to the President that would assist with such prioritization.”
Some thoughts:
1) The “exemption” applies to refugee admissions, not immigration visas.
2) I interpret this paragraph as saying, “if you are being persecuted for your religion, we’ll try to prioritize your refugee status, but that claim only holds water if you’re a member of the religious minority.” It just doesn’t sound as discriminatory as the press makes it out to be.
3) It seems like this clause could actually apply to Muslims from a minority sect in their country. For example, a Sunni from Iran could probably use this clause to get priority.
4) Finally, just wondering…if we think the ban is bad, then isn’t any exception to the ban a good thing? Or is it better to punish everyone equally?
As for this statement:
“you’ll see that the only countries included in Trump’s travel ban are those with populations over 90% Muslim.”
There are also several countries on that list with 90%+ Muslim populations that were NOT included in the ban. (Egypt, Afghanistan, and Pakistan jumped out at me for starters).
So, yeah, I think that calling this a Muslim Ban or anything along those lines is really inflammatory and misinformed. And those are two things that we DON’T need more of these days 🙂
LikeLike
Well rats, my first comment disappeared in space. Here goes again.
I love the format of your blog. Many days I just want to get to the “what the hell can I do” part of posts, blogs, action alerts. I trust and appreciate your thorough footwork. I have a friend who is 10 years older than I (83!), reading through the issues and sending action alerts to 80 people a day. Trouble is she’s becoming overwhelmed and discouraged by continuous exposure to the intense and overwhelming news. Some days I can take it in, some days I can’t but the phone calls take 5 minutes and then I can walk the dog.
I’ve learned that I can usually get through to Paul Ryan on the Speaker of the House phone line. His Wisco offices don’t accept calls unless you live in his district. A few short miles away…
I agree that this is a freedom of religion issue, targeting Muslims from countries where the Orange King doesn’t have business ties. Also serves his purpose in fanning the flames of fear and hatred. Ach. Persistence indeed!
Bien escrito.
Warm hug from cold Wisconsin.
LikeLike