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Understanding Trump's Executive Order on Immigration

2017-01-31 · explainer · John · 7:21 · watch on YouTube

Topic: US politics & society · mode: News analysis · tags: timely hook, heavy topic, civic or action cta

John explains what Trump's executive order on immigration says (a 90-day entry ban on seven nations, a 120-day halt to refugee admissions, Syrian resettlement suspended indefinitely) and argues it is poorly targeted against terrorism, legally confused and a dangerous statement about refugees, asking viewers to listen to refugees' stories.

What is said

The parts of the video and what is said in each (★ — how much it matters to the video).

00:00:00 — Greeting; Trump's executive order and the confusion about it

  • ★★★ John reports that on Friday afternoon President Trump signed an executive order reshaping US immigration law, causing confusion, even within government, about whom it affects. — 00:00:01 · Donald Trump

00:00:17 — The 90-day entry ban on seven nations: visas, hard-luck stories, green card holders, dual citizens

  • ★★★ John says the order bans for 90 days all immigrant and non-immigrant entry by citizens of seven nations, naming Iran, Iraq, Libya, Somalia, Sudan and Yemen. — 00:00:17
  • ★★ The seven nations seem to have been chosen because 2015 and 2016 laws signed by President Obama required their residents to get a visa to visit the US. (hedged) — 00:00:29 · Barack Obama, United States
  • ★★ The order says citizens of those nations can't enter the US even with a visa, with a few exceptions for diplomats. — 00:00:39 · United States
  • ★★ An Iranian professor at Yale, a well-known opponent of the Iranian regime, won't be allowed to re-enter the US if she leaves. — 00:00:45 · United States
  • ★★ A doctor abroad battling a polio outbreak was denied entry to the US despite his visa. — 00:00:53 · United States
  • ★★ John says that because people from these countries already needed visas with specific reasons (family, study, specialized work), almost all the stories are hard-luck stories. — 00:01:00
  • ★★ The order is hard to parse even within government: on Sunday Trump's chief of staff said it does not apply to green card holders, then in the same interview that it does. — 00:01:16 · Donald Trump
  • ★★ After much confusion and emergency lawsuits, it now appears that permanent residents will not be subject to the ban. (hedged) — 00:01:39
  • ★★ It is unclear whether the order applies to dual citizens, such as a Canadian citizen born in Somalia like Canada's immigration minister. — 00:01:44 · Canada

00:01:56 — The entry ban is poorly targeted: terrorism statistics, proving a negative, Cato and Republican critics

  • ★★★ John counts himself among the critics who argue the entry ban is really poorly targeted. — 00:01:56
  • ★★★ No foreign national from any of the seven countries has ever killed an American in a terrorist attack. — 00:02:02 · United States
  • ★★★ Terrorism in the US since 9/11 has been exceedingly rare: in the past decade American civilians were more likely to die by lightning strike than by terrorism. — 00:02:10 · United States
  • ★★ Most attacks that do happen in the US are carried out by American citizens or permanent residents and would not be prevented by the order. — 00:02:20 · United States
  • ★★ John answers the counterargument that there may be unknown threats from these countries: it is really hard to prove a negative. — 00:02:29
  • ★★ Concerns about the ban don't fall along left-right lines: the very conservative Cato Institute said it has little national security benefit. — 00:02:44
  • ★★ Many, though by no means all, Republican members of Congress and senators agree. — 00:02:56 · Republican Party, United States Congress
  • ★★ John McCain and Lindsey Graham said in a statement that the ban may be remembered as a self-inflicted wound in the fight against terrorism. — 00:03:00

00:03:07 — The refugee suspension: 120 days, Syria indefinitely, vetting, religious priority, refugee numbers by faith

  • ★★ In 2011 the Obama administration dramatically slowed refugee applications from Iraq for six months, an oft-cited precedent that John says is very different. — 00:03:13 · Barack Obama
  • ★★★ Trump is suspending all refugee admissions to the US from all countries for 120 days and all refugee resettlement from Syria indefinitely. — 00:03:24 · Donald Trump, United States
  • ★★ John says the refugee suspension appears to include people already vetted, approved and given visas, which he calls very different from the earlier Iraq slowdown. (hedged) — 00:03:33
  • ★★★ Contrary to claims that Syrian refugees are not vetted, the process includes many background checks and interviews and often takes more than two years. — 00:03:40
  • ★★ The order prioritizes claims based on religious persecution, which Trump says means prioritizing Christians, though the order doesn't say so and it may not be legal. — 00:03:54 · Donald Trump
  • ★★ Last year (2016) the US accepted about 39,000 Muslim refugees, about 37,500 Christian ones and 8,500 people of other or no faith. — 00:04:10 · United States
  • ★★ Vetted Muslim refugees cannot get in, but neither can Christian or Buddhist refugees for at least 120 days, nor interpreters who served with US forces in Iraq, since no refugees are being admitted. — 00:04:20

00:04:38 — The blanket refugee ban is poorly targeted and unlikely to make the US safer

  • ★★★ John finds the blanket refugee ban very poorly targeted: it lumps together all refugees, whether from Syria, South Sudan or Burma. (hedged) — 00:04:38
  • ★★ Most refugees resettled in the US in 2015 were Burmese, not Syrian. — 00:04:46 · United States
    • check: most — doubtful
  • ★★ Many Syrian refugees are victims of ISIS who can speak firsthand about its horrors, a moderating rather than radicalizing force. — 00:04:51
  • ★★★ Imagining Syrians monolithically is as dangerously simplistic as imagining that ending refugee resettlement will solve US security challenges. — 00:05:00 · othering
  • ★★★ John shares John McCain's feeling that a blanket ban will ultimately do more to help terrorist recruitment than to improve security. — 00:05:09
  • ★★★ Trump says the order will make the US safer and has secret information John lacks, but these policies would not have prevented a single US terror fatality in the last 40 years. — 00:05:16 · Donald Trump, United States

00:05:31 — Legal confusion: the Constitution clause, asylum and the Immigration and Nationality Act; 'a hot mess'

  • ★★ The order states that the US cannot and should not admit those who do not support the Constitution. — 00:05:31 · United States

    “The United States cannot, and should not, admit those who do not support the Constitution.”

  • ★★ With many law professors, John calls that clause kind of ludicrous: a Canadian who prefers parliamentary government could seemingly be barred from Disney World. (playful, hedged) — 00:05:40 · Canada

  • ★★★ Because the order bars 'benefits' to citizens of affected nations, people apparently cannot seek asylum, violating the Immigration and Nationality Act, which an executive order cannot override. (hedged) — 00:05:56
  • ★★★ Whatever one thinks about immigration, John calls the order a hot mess: too ambiguous, self-contradictory and unclear to be effective law. — 00:06:28

00:06:37 — A dangerous statement; imagining refugees complexly; the refugee stories playlist; sign-off

  • ★★ John says much of this may be moot in three or four months (by May 2017) as parts of the order expire. (hedged) — 00:06:37
  • ★★★ John worries the US has already made a dangerous statement that it won't do its part in the refugee crisis and will discriminate solely by place of birth, which he thinks are mistakes. (hedged) — 00:06:41 · United States
  • ★★★ Imagining a diverse group of over 100 million people as a terrifying, singular Other only encourages others to imagine us that way. — 00:06:52 · othering

  • ★★★ John says it is hard to imagine people complexly, especially when told to fear them, but he has found listening helpful. — 00:07:02 · imagine others complexly

    “It's hard to imagine people complexly, especially when you're being told to fear them”

  • ★★★ John has put together a playlist of refugees telling their stories and asks viewers to listen to them, believe them and see them as people, not merely threats. — 00:07:07

In the description and comments

  • ★★ John lists his sources: two Cato Institute analyses (on terrorism and immigration risk, and on the order's little national security benefit), the 2015 visa waiver law HR 158 and the 2016 addition of three countries, Reince Priebus on Meet the Press, NOAA's odds of death by lightning, the McCain and Graham statement, a Washington Post fact check that Obama slowed but did not stop Iraqi refugee applications in 2011, NPR on the 18-to-24-month approval process, the State Department on resettlement, and Pew on where 2016's refugees came from. — video description · Barack Obama

Threads in this video

Where the stories that moved here went next

Mentioned

Central: Donald Trump · Executive Order 13769 · refugee · terrorism

Also: People: Barack Obama · John McCain · Lindsey Graham

Works: Constitution of the United States · Stories from Refugees

Organizations: Cato Institute · Islamic State · Republican Party · United States Armed Forces · United States Congress · Yale University

Terms: imagine others complexly

Concepts: Buddhism · Christianity · Islam · lightning · othering · polio · right of asylum

Places: Canada · Iran · Iraq · Libya · Myanmar · Somalia · South Sudan · Sudan · Syria · United States · Walt Disney World · Yemen

Events: September 11 attacks

Characters: Big Brother

Policies: Immigration and Nationality Act

Only in the description or credits: National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration · NPR · Pew Research Center · Reince Priebus · The Washington Post · United States Department of State

Also centred on refugee: Volunteering (In Your Pants) · THE PROJECT FOR AWESOME 2013 IS UPON US! · Understanding the Refugee Crisis in Europe, Syria, and around the World · The Refugee Crises: Project for Awesome 2015 · Aida and Majeeda: Thoughts from the Azraq Refugee Camp · The Extraordinary Story of Hussam: Teenager, Writer, and Syrian Refugee

Also centred on terrorism: 10 Years after September 11th, and Diablo III

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