Saturday, January 28, 2017

So, What's It Really All About, Huh?

A facebook friend writes as follows:
I've been curious about whether or not any other presidents imposed immigration bans and what the Immigration act says about it. This is what I found...
Section 212(f) of the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1952 states: “Whenever the President finds that the entry of any aliens or of any class of aliens into the United States would be detrimental to the interests of the United States, he may by proclamation, and for such period as he shall deem necessary, suspend the entry of all aliens or any class of aliens as immigrants or nonimmigrants, or impose on the entry of aliens any restrictions he may deem to be appropriate.”

I also found that six presidents have activated this Section of the law on a temporary basis. Those presidents included Obama, George W. Bush, Jimmy Carter, Ronald Reagan and Bill Clinton. The Obama administration blocked processing Iraq refugee requests for six months. I don't remember the Democrats going ballistic over this.
I tried to understand what Trump did. As i understand it, he is banning refugees from countries that are hotbeds of terrorists. The seven Muslim-majority countries cited by President Trump+ in his executive order that blocks all refugees from entering the US for 120 days are Iraq, Syria, Iran, Sudan, Libya, Somalia and Yemen. In Syria's case, the suspension is indefinite. It's for 120 days. Three of the largest Muslim countries are not affected by this - India, Pakistan and Indonesia. So that could make a case that the Muslim community is not being banned or those three would have been included.
I regret that any President felt it necessary to ban refugees. I regret what I see happening around the world by people who put their ideologies before the value of life. Will his 120 day work? I don't know but condemn all presidents for their use of the section and not just him.

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