It has started. The Muslim ban is now underway, and it’s hurting legal American residents as well as refugees.

What happened?

The signing of the executive order by President Donald Trump preventing the entry of refugees from the United States has influenced not only refugees of the 7 countries highlighted, but over 500,000 legal residents of the United States as well. The executive order prevents the administration of visas as well as overall entry to the United States for those who hail from Iraq, Iran, Somalia, Syria, Libya, Sudan and Yemen. However, this is only the beginning, as the Trump administration went ahead to state that this is the beginning of a much broader ban that is to be instated in the future. In terms of those who already possess residency in the form of a Green Card and are currently within the United States should also proceed with caution if they are from the following countries, as they are advised to meet with a Consular Officer in order to meet an ambiguous threshold announced by the Trump administration for obtaining a waiver from the executive order. The threshold, as stated, is based upon whether the individual leaving the country is acting “in the national interest” of the United States. The duration of the entry is specified for refugees for 120 days, and the entry for all citizens of the aforementioned countries has been set at 90 days.

The effect of the ban is already hitting the United States as of Friday. Several individuals returning from the earlier listed countries have been detained at airports across the country, most particularly being at JFK Airport in New York City. Implementation of this law has been overall chaotic, a representative term to describe the Trump presidency so far in terms of understanding and interacting with the American public as well as passing policies. As for the long term, this creates an aura of uncertainty for a large portion of the American population. From the countries listed, the policy affects a grand total of approximately 134 million people. Amongst those people, approximately 500,000 possess a Green Card, granting them permanent residency within the United States, and about 25,000 possess student visas or work visas that grant them entry to the United States. For them, their future is uncertain, as the implementation of this policy may jeopardize their stay in the United States, hence greatly jeopardizing a large population’s opportunities at a better future.

The issues don’t stop there. The lack of transparency in regards to the direction in which the ban will be extended towards has created an atmosphere of uncertainty within American politics in a manner that only instills fear in the minds of the vulnerable population. Those who could potentially be affected have no idea how exactly the future of this population will be manipulated, in what manner the policy will affect them, and how many will be affected by it. The ambiguity casts a cloud of fear over the population, which subsequently carries over various other sociopolitical effects.

What are the effects?

The climate has only further created a divisive sociopolitical atmosphere in the United States, with the effects of the promises that were thought to be too excessive to be true coming to effect in the political atmosphere of the United States. A large portion of the American population believed that the policies of the Trump administration were simply too absurd to come true due to their grandeur and volatile nature, but the signing of the executive orders speak otherwise. This spells danger for a large portion of the American population as well as dispels the illusion for those who were clouded in their perspectives.

These policies only reaffirm the underlying Islamophobia that has existed in the American political and sociopolitical sphere for decades on. Such an issue, despite being repeatedly addressed, is still proliferated in the United States, and there seems to be no end to the proliferation of hatred. It almost seems hopeless, but resistance requires resilience. However, the situation looks bleak. Hate and prejudice are ingrained, generational beliefs, and once they are released, they create an unbearable wave of ideological as well as material violence that renders resistance almost insignificant. Education seems bleak, and politics becomes one-sided. Protests are indeed underway, but the lack of response to the protests from the current administration just further shows the stark divide of those who are harmed and those who are deluded by prejudice and ideologically fueled hatred to support such policies from passing. This reaffirms the divisive nature of prejudice-based politics, and the expression of rage is the only plausible way to destabilize it. It requires a revolution to bring about large-scale change, but the costs are far too high in the modern age to create a revolution to the extent that it would destabilize one of the most ideologically ingrained forms of prejudice on a massive scale.

This also serves as an effective marker to incentivize hate-fueled violence. Harassment towards Muslim communities had already begun in full swing with people holding small-scale shouting parties and rallies in front of mosques, along with forms of harassment to people of color who either wear religious attire or even appear Muslim to the naked eye. This form of violence is highly reminiscent to the nationalistic mentality that spurred the nation into action against Muslims in the post-9/11 era, holding all Muslims accountable for the attacks on the World Trade Center and subsequently subjecting them to ideological and physical torture. A relapse to such times can spell highly troubled times for not just the citizens of the countries aforementioned, but for all those who even remotely look anything like the public consensus of the appearance of a Muslim. Categorical demonization is now in full effect.

This does not bode well for the future.