‘They’re not coming to this country if I’m president’

Unless you live under a rock, you would have probably seen the global outcry over Donald Trump’s new executive order over immigration. It has sparked protests all over the world and has received mass condemnation. If you don’t know- an executive order is a legal document that does not require congressional approval which means the president can use them to set policy while avoiding public debate and opposition. This has then enabled to allow Trump to essentially – do what he wants to.

What the order includes is a suspension of the US refugee Admissions program for 120 days and there is also an indefinite ban on Syrian refugees. Anyone coming from seven Muslim-majority countries face a 90-day visa suspension. This countries include Iraq, Iran, Somalia and Sudan. However, diplomats and the UN are not included in the said suspension.

Donald Trump has said that the halt on the refugee program was ‘needed to give government agencies time to develop a stricter system and insure that visas were not issued to individuals posing a national security threat’. He then went on to Facebook and released a statement saying “To be clear, this is not a Muslim ban, as the media is falsely reporting”. This is a bit farfetched however as I think that this is exactly what this is. Don’t forget that in the last Republican debate Trump said that ‘They’re not coming to this country if I’m president’ whilst referring to Muslims; which is rather sobering.

Even at home Theresa may is feeling the heat over President Trump’s actions. Her own MP’s are disagreeing over her almost nonchalant attitude over his ban and the fact that she is carrying on with a state visit by Trump- even though 1.3 million people have signed a petition against it. Whilst on the other hand Jeremy Corbyn has urged the PM to postpone the visit.

The thing is, this ban doesn’t even seem to appear legal at all. In 1965 there was an act passed that meant that no one could be discriminated against because of their ‘gender, nationality, place of birth or place of residence”- It was called the immigration and Nationality Act. The fact that they are all Muslim countries does make the order rather ‘anti-muslim’- which the Trump administration has been quick to dismiss.

What has been dominating the news and peoples own minds is how this is all going to be done. Naturally, there is a lot of speculation and confusion about the act and why it was targeted so specifically at Muslims. Social media has pointed out that the list does not include countries where President Trump has business interests – like Saudi Arabia – a suggestion dismissed by the president’s chief of staff as not related.

The world has been thrown into complete chaos- and the Trump administration has only really just started.

 

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