With members of the media collectively losing their minds over President Trump's executive order on refugees and border security, it is critical to cut through the earsplitting noise to actually understand what the order entails.
First and foremost, the order was not enacted in a vacuum, but instead was an organic outgrowth of the "Visa Waiver Program Improvement and Terrorist Travel Prevention Act of 2015." Signed by President Barack Obama, the act singled out seven majority Muslim countries (Iran, Syria, Iraq, Libya, Sudan, Somalia and Yemen) in which the Visa Waiver Program would be ended. It is a mischaracterization, then, to say that Trump has simply enacted a "Muslim ban" out of whole cloth. Instead, the executive order expands on an existing law, signed by Obama, by stopping all travel for noncitizens from these countries for 90 days so the Department of Homeland Security can determine what information is needed to properly vet visa applicants in the future.
Second, the executive order does not close our doors to refugees. Instead, the order limits the number of refugees allowed into the U.S. at 50,000 per year. Data from the Migration Policy Institute shows that after 9/11 President George W. Bush rarely admitted more than 50,000 refugees, while Obama admitted only slightly more refugees until 2016, when he admitted 84,995 refugees. Thus, the executive order can actually be seen more as a return to normal U.S. refugee policy instead of the dramatic departure that it is being portrayed as by the media.
Third, the executive order halts the refugee resettlement program from Syria indefinitely and for 120 days from the rest of the six countries listed. This, however, is in no way out of line with recent precedent set by Obama. In 2011, Obama himself halted Iraqi refugee admission for six months over fears of terrorist infiltration. Moreover, the U.S. and our European allies have suffered numerous terrorist attacks since 2011, some of which have been perpetrated by terrorists who had taken advantage of refugee status to infiltrate the U.S. and Europe. Thus, Trump has solid standing to temporarily halt refugee admission from these countries until our vetting system has been properly analyzed and updated.
Finally, the executive order prioritizes Christian refugees, a decision that has been met with outrage and accusations of Islamaphobia. This seems to be a strange reaction, as U.S. policy for decades has been to prioritize those refugees who are persecuted religious minorities. In fact, the executive order itself never actually references "Christians." This is why Obama's inability to admit Christian refugees from Syria has been so troubling. According to David French of National Review magazine, 77 percent of Syrian refugees admitted were Muslim, while only 0.68 percent were Christian or Yazidi, a startling statistic when one considers that in 2015 Christians made up almost 10 percent of Syria's population. Thus, Trump's executive order moves to actually protect those religious minorities who have nowhere safe to go.
Yet, Trump's executive order is not without critical flaws. Multiple reports show that Trump and his advisers failed to consult the Office of Legal Counsel to determine the legality of the order and how to best implement it. Moreover, the White House failed to work with the relevant executive administrations that would be implementing the order, causing chaos and confusion that was on full display this weekend at JFK and other airports around the country.
The actual content of the order also has many serious flaws, such as not exempting those immigrants and visa holders who had worked with the U.S. military or were simply already en route to the U.S. The executive order also barred green card holders, a significant mistake considering these people have already gone through significant screening to obtain this status that allows them to live here permanently. Thus, people who have families, friends and jobs in the U.S., but were overseas at the time of this order, may now be blocked from returning.
All together these are unacceptable mistakes, in keeping with the amateurish behavior seen by the Trump administration in its first week in office, have gone a long way to overshadow an executive order that is not out of line with longstanding U.S. policy.
