With the new executive order that Trump signed, many have been understandably perturbed by the “extreme vetting” of immigrants. The main targets of this order are the refugees escaping from the atrocities in Syria and other chiefly Muslim countries: Iraq, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Yemen, and Iran.
“I am establishing new vetting measures to keep radical Islamic terrorists out of the United States of America,” Trump said during the signing at the Pentagon. He added, “We want to ensure that we are not admitting into our country the very threats our soldiers are fighting overseas. We only want to admit those into our country who will support our country and love deeply our people.”
But these very threats are not those attempting to flee from a war-stricken place; these refugees are simply in search of safety and hope after losing everything.
As always, human-rights activists have expressed their indignation and utterly condemned Trump’s ill-advised actions. By instating a temporary ban on all refugees and immigrants from Muslim countries, it also gives off a xenophobic signal to be unnecessarily wary of foreigners and especially people of different colors and religions. Even though it has been statistically proven that the native-born population is more likely to commit crimes than immigrants, Trump’s administration seems to be bent on spreading the egregious propaganda. However, this is not the essence of the article.
There is one other similarity that all of the aforementioned countries have: the United States violent interventions. From perpetual bombings to forceful sanctions, the U.S. has a long history of causing pervasive instability in countries whose refugees are now ironically banned from entering.
Maybe this could be plausible in a horror film. But in real life? It surely sounds more of an unjust enormity than a foreign policy. Endless Western military interventions in the Middle East have brought only devastation and disunity and it is high-time Americans begin re-evaluating their policy choices which will affect the very same group of people the U.S. took advantage of.
“From perpetual bombings to forceful sanctions, the U.S. has a long history of causing pervasive instability in countries whose refugees are now ironically banned from entering.”
CAIR National Litigation Director Lena F. Masri said in a statement, “This is an order that is based on bigotry, not reality.” While there is no substantial evidence that the most vetted of all people in the U.S pose a threat to the nation’s security, it has been proven that the 9/11 terrorists consisted of 15 Saudi Arabians – whose country is not included in the executive order.
Does Trump ever take into account about facts and the history of the country he is supposedly “serving”? We might never know. But one thing is for sure that his hypocrisy will stand tall and mighty throughout his presidency.
