by Matthew Barnes, Contributing Writer
It’s almost impossible to find an American citizen who does not have an opinion on the “Muslim ban” that President Trump has ordered in the past week. Protests are rampant, and the governor of Massachusetts is urging changes to the plan. Despite fully supporting immigration, I feel the media has completely blown this executive order out of proportion; it has caused unnecessary rage that isn’t fair to President Trump.
This is coming from someone who is not a diehard Trump supporter. I rooted heavily against him in the Republican primaries and agree with many fellow citizens that think he is a rash hothead who has no filter on his words. He is not a saint, but I am praying he succeeds in office and does what is best for the nation.
But let’s break down the facts. Trump is putting a 120-day ban on people from seven countries: Iran, Iraq, Syria, Somalia, the Sudan, Libya and Yemen. According to the Pew Research Center, there are 49 Muslim-majority countries, and only seven extremist ones are on his list according to the Pew Research Center. Even President Obama listed these seven countries as sources of terror when he responded to a security threat by slowing down entry of Iraqi immigrants for six months. If he really hated Muslims so much, why wouldn’t he just ban all of them? It seems like he is just monitoring the extremist countries. There shouldn’t be a problem with our president trying to keep us safe.
Now let’s see how CNN responded. They ran a headline that said, “Trump bans 134,000,000 from the U.S.” Sky News reported that out of 325,000 immigrants so far, approximately 90,000 have been held up at all. While the population of those seven countries may be around 134,000,000 people, the entire population isn’t planning on moving here. Only a small percentage would be. Many will still get in because of having green cards. So that number is a massive stretch that is trying to make the situation seem worse than it is.
After the vetting process ends, Trump’s policy puts a cap on refugee admissions of 50,000. Before 2016, when President Obama ramped up admissions drastically, that 50,000 number stands roughly in between a typical year of refugee admissions during George W. Bush’s terms and Obama’s two terms according to the National Review. This means Trump’s number of allowances is about the average that has been allowed in the past four presidential terms. Heartless, right?
Is it that wrong of America to improve our screening process? If an immigrant is a great person and really wants to live here, they should easily pass and be allowed in. However, if we let in every refugee we encounter, it won’t even be our nation anymore. A country without border control isn’t even a country; it’s simply chaos. We can still be a caring, reasonable nation and protect our own citizens.
In no way are all immigrants bad people. However, with the rising threat of ISIS in those seven countries banned, our country should be on high alert. Look in our own backyard: ABC News reports that several dozen suspected terrorist bombmakers, including some believed to have targeted American troops, may have mistakenly been allowed to move to the United States as war refugees, according to FBI agents investigating the remnants of roadside bombs recovered from Iraq and Afghanistan. We have enemies, so we need to be careful with how we handle them.
I admit that Trump brought some of this outrage on himself. During his campaign, he made several statements that sounded very racist, so many Americans think he only made this ban because he hates Muslims. Donald Trump may not be a wordsmith, but I believe he truly cares about our safety and we should cut him a little slack before we tear him down again.