President Donald Trump issued an executive order Friday indefinitely barring Syrian refugees from entering the United States. He also suspended all refugee admissions for 120 days, and blocked citizens of seven Muslim-majority countries - Iran, Iraq, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria, Yemen - from entering the country for 90 days. Chaos ensued, lawsuits were filed, and people protested nationwide against Trump for the second time since his Inauguration.
Benjamin Wittes, Senior Fellow at the Brookings Institution calls the ban an act of malevolence tempered only by the incompetence with which it was implemented.He says this is not an act that will regrettably cause hardship to some in service to a greater good. This is a political act that deliberately puts politics over any actual security interest.
Charles Kurzman, professor at UNC, Chapel Hill studies the statistics on terrorism. He says Americans are so fixated on Islamic terrorism, they don’t notice that of all the threats in America, ideological violence is a minute fraction. Since 9/11, no one from the seven targeted countries has committed an act of terror in the U.S.
President Trump defends his decision:
“America is a proud nation of immigrants, and we will continue to show compassion to those fleeing oppression. But we will do so while protecting our own citizens and border,” Trump said Sunday afternoon. “This is not a Muslim ban, as the media is falsely reporting. … My first priority will always be to protect and serve our country, but as president I will find ways to help all those who are suffering.”
Yet, there's no indication this plan addresses the stated concerns of the administration or that it will make us safer. On the contrary, it could harm us.
Also this hour: Stephen Bannon is given a security role on the National Security Council usually held for generals.
GUESTS:
- Chris Murphy - U.S. Senator, Connecticut (D)
- Charles Kurzman - Professor of Sociology at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He's the author of several books including most recently, The Missing Martyrs: Why There Are So Few Muslim Terrorists
- Philip Rucker - White House Bureau Chief, Washington Post
- Chris George - Executive Director, Integrated Refugee and Immigrant Services, New Haven (IRIS)
- Amin Karbasi - Assistant Professor of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science at Yale University, who is currently on sabbatical at University of California, Berkeley.
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Colin McEnroe and Chion Wolf contributed to this show.
