Reuters Just Announced Trump Set To Sign Muslim Immigration Ban
Our worst fears are coming to pass. Harvard Professor and CNN analyst Juliette Kayyem reports that Gen. John Kelly’s Department of Homeland Security is currently in the process of preparing and vetting possible executive orders that would suspend visas from majority-Muslim nations, end the Syrian refugee resettlement program, and even ending the entire refugee program entirely. Reuters has just confirmed this information.
Reuters: Pres Trump expected to sign executive actions on immigration Wednesday (not Thursday) *correction from @ReutersPolitics
— Jesse Rodriguez (@JesseRodriguez) January 24, 2017
Reuters: Pres Trump exec order on immigration would restrict access
for refugees from Iraq, Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria & Yemen— Jesse Rodriguez (@JesseRodriguez) January 24, 2017
Reuters: Pres Trump executive actions on immigration to focus on refugees, immigrants from certain Muslim countries
— Jesse Rodriguez (@JesseRodriguez) January 24, 2017
1. weds fun? presently being vetted at DHS: the EOs ending Syrian refugee program and a suspension of Muslim majority country visas.
— Juliette Kayyem (@juliettekayyem) January 24, 2017
2. DHS was also asked to determine whether ending entire refugee program doable and favoring religious minorities in revamp.
— Juliette Kayyem (@juliettekayyem) January 24, 2017
3. Nothing definite but consistent with platform. Cruel and ineffective. That's the Trump doctrine. Terror level also just went up I suspect
— Juliette Kayyem (@juliettekayyem) January 24, 2017
4. These were all in the range of proposals but far enough along for me to know about.
— Juliette Kayyem (@juliettekayyem) January 24, 2017
5. More: 6 EOs have been vetted. Some more disconcerting than others. Most vague. Trump may go to DHS to sign.
— Juliette Kayyem (@juliettekayyem) January 24, 2017
It appears that Donald Trump’s most appalling campaign trail promises are coming to pass. Trump exploited the Islamophobia of ignorant conservatives to great effect throughout the campaign, buoyed by the Daeshi terror attacks in Paris and Brussels and the lone wolf mass shootings in San Bernadino and Miami. Trump’s proposed ban on Muslims would have prevented none of those attacks, but facts have never mattered to our pathological-liar-in-chief. As it so happens, white Christian radicals commit terror attacks at a much higher rate than Muslims do in the United States.
Trump’s proposed executive orders are a loud rejection of the values our nation was founded on. Tolerance, diversity, and multiculturalism are all being discarded for xenophobic isolationism and the values of white supremacy. Not only does this kind of outrageously offensive action play right into the hands of radical militants like Daesh (ISIS/ISIL) and al-Qaeda, giving credibility to the extremist propaganda which says Western civilization is incompatible with Islam, but it is a disgusting show of hypocrisy from the so-called “Christians” in our government, who are such despicable cowards they see their own fear and prejudices reflected in the eyes of Syrian children.
All the warnings from the election campaign that were dismissed as “hyperbole” or “alarmist” are proving themselves to be very, very real. To paraphrase the famous quote by anti-Nazi Pastor Martin Niemöller, this is when they come for the Muslims. Will you wait until they come for you?
Opinion columnist and former editor-in-chief of Occupy Democrats. He graduated from Bennington College with a Bachelor's degree in history and political science. He now focuses on advancing the cause of social justice and equality in America.