Trump’s executive order and the threat from within

The US president's new travel ban illustrates demonstrates that the key enemy to America comes from within the country, writes James Zogby

Protesters chant during a rally against the travel ban at San Diego International Airport on March 6. Sandy Huffaker / AFP

This week, Donald Trump issued a revised executive order restricting immigration from six majority Muslim countries and more than halving the United States refugee programme. This version includes some significant changes: it is more carefully written, it removes Iraq from the list of countries falling under the ban and it exempts those with green cards and valid visas. Nevertheless, it remains a false, dangerous, cruel, arbitrary and bigoted assault on Muslims and the very idea of America as an open, welcoming society.

It is based on the false premise that it is designed to protect Americans from foreign terrorists. Arguments to this effect peppered the order. Jeff Sessions, the attorney general, cited the case of a naturalised Somali-American who was convicted of planning a terrorist attack in 2014 and claimed that the FBI was investigating 300 refugees for possible terrorist activity.

The Somali American case is the only known instance in which a former refugee from one of the six countries sought to engage in violence.

Given the administration's penchant for “alternative facts”, the first ever mention of 300 individuals “under investigation” must be taken with a pinch of salt until it can be independently verified.

In fact, just a few days earlier, the department of homeland security released a study concluding that most recorded terrorist crimes were committed by individuals who became radicalised after living in the US, and that, in any case, “country of citizenship is unlikely to be a reliable indicator of potential terrorist activity”.

The executive order is designed to set up Muslims as a "bogeyman" in order to win support for Mr Trump's efforts to overhaul the entire immigration programme.

Some have argued that this is the precursor to Mr Trump making good on his promise of a general “Muslim ban”. It very well may be, since the order states that more countries may be added.

Additionally, the order includes mention of a still undefined ideology test for admittance to the US.

Arabs, including US citizens, who have already undergone similar screening by border patrol officials, can testify to how insulting and intrusive this process can be. Laptops and phones have been seized and their downloaded, and individuals have been asked for their views on the American-led invasion of Iraq, whether they support Israel and their religious beliefs.

This is a sure-fire way to discriminate against an entire group of people – and, I might add, not just Muslims.

Just as insidious is the suspension of the refugee programme and the pledge to significantly reduce the number of refugees from all countries being allowed into the US.

From the earliest days of his presidential campaign, when Mr Trump first warned about the dangers of refugees, major church-based refugee resettlement groups responded forcefully with evidence demonstrating the thoroughness of the vetting process. But Mr Trump has persisted with the lie that refugees are not screened. This order will ultimately reduce the number of refugees allowed into the US from 110,000 to 50,000.

This is unconscionable, since those who apply for admission as refugees are desperate souls seeking to escape life-threatening situations. They have risked everything in the hopes of securing safety and opportunity for their families. Fear mongering at their expense is a cruel and heartless act.

The architects of the administration's machinations are a small cadre of ultra-nationalist advisers. They fear that “their” country is at risk of being transformed and that action must be taken to save America.

On the one hand, they are right, as America is changing. Where they are wrong is that the very idea of America is found not in exclusion, but in its inclusiveness.

The same xenophobic fear being expressed by the president and his supporters today once prompted others before them to agitate against Jews, Catholics, Eastern Europeans, Chinese and every other wave of new immigrants.

It was they who said “Irish need not apply”, led the forced deportation of Mexican-American citizens, lynched Italians, committed violence against Eastern Europeans, supported the internment of Japanese and fought against equal rights for African Americans.

The idea of America is bigger than the one the xenophobes have espoused and so, time and again, they lost.

Not learning the lessons of history, this administration is trying once again to impose exclusionary policies. They are building a wall, ordering mass deportations, and issuing a bigoted executive order.

When all is said and done, it's not refugees and immigrants, Latinos or Muslims, who pose an existential threat to the American idea. That threat comes from Mr Trump’s administration and its policies.

Dr James Zogby is president of the Arab American Institute

On Twitter: @aaiusa