Trump's Muslim Ban

Donald Trump's Controversial Executive Order 

Erin Worley 

February 1, 2017 

On January 27, 2017, Donald Trump signed a controversial executive order. The order, titled Protecting the Nation From Foreign Terrorist Entry into the United States has received international attention and outrage. This order has effectively banned the entrance of Muslims from seven Middle Eastern countries––a direct violation of the first amendment to the U.S. Constitution. 

Banned countries: 

                                  

Section 1 of the executive order discusses 9/11. In this section Trump mentions, "State Department policy prevented consular officers from properly scrutinizing the visa applications of several of the 19 foreign nationals who went on to murder nearly 3,000 Americans." He then goes on to use this as justification for the ban. This is where the problem starts. Of the 19 hijackers in the 9/11 attack, 15 were from Saudi Arabia. However, as noted above, Saudi Arabia did not make the list of banned countries. In fact, neither did Egypt, Lebanon, or the United Arab Emirates, the three countries who make up the remaining four hijackers in the 9/11 attack. So, why use 9/11 as justification for creating this ban, if none of the countries involved in the hijacking are added to the list? 

In order to avoid the legality issues that come along when the POTUS violates the U.S. Constitution, Trump continues to rebut this executive order by claiming that it is not a Muslim ban, when in fact it is. 

Section 5(b) of the executive order states, "Upon the resumption of USRAP admissions . . . [Secretary of State and Secretary of Homeland Security will] prioritize refugee claims made by individuals on the basis of religious-based persecution, provided that the religion of the individual is a minority religion in the individuals country of nationality." Without going any further, this violates the U.S. Constitution simply because it prioritizes certain people based on their religion. In a country built by immigrants and sought after for its promise of freedom of religion, this executive order is eliminating hundreds of years of progress in one quick sweep. 

To be more specific about how this constitutes as a Muslim ban, let's look at the religious breakdown of the countries in which Trump banned the "religious majority," according to the CIA Factbook statistics. 

                                 

Looking at the religious statistics of these countries, how is this order anything but a Muslim ban?How is this not a violation of the Supreme Law of the Land? How have we allowed this to happen?