On Friday, January 27, President Trump signed an executive order that would, essentially, ban any Muslim immigrants or refugees from entering the United States. The order, titled “Protection of the Nation from Foreign Terrorist Entry into the United States,” will tighten the American borders and give priority to Christian immigrants and refugees seeking entry into the country. This is blatantly unconstitutional.
If you consider yourself even slightly patriotic, you should have no reason to support this move from the Trump administration.
The United States prides itself (at least, it has up until recently) on being a “melting pot” of different races, religions, and backgrounds. We are a country with no official language or religion, and we have laws that ensure freedom of religion and freedom from discrimination. However, this executive order signed by President Trump is blatantly anti-Muslim and unbelievably racist. It assumes that every single person who practices Islam is a terrorist (when, in actuality, Muslim-related terrorism has only killed 37 Americans since 9/11, while 190,000 Americans were murdered by non-Muslims in that same time period).
We could delve into the extent to which Muslims are not terrorists (in 2013, the bombing on the Boston Marathon carried out by a Muslim claimed the lives of three Americans. That same year, five people were shot in the United States by toddlers accidentally firing a gun), but that’s not the point. The point is that because of government and media-invoked fear, this country is terrified of anyone with a different skin tone or religious identity, all while claiming to be a welcoming and diverse nation.
It’s also important to keep in mind that Anne Frank’s family was denied entry into the United States as refugees, a relocation that would have saved her life, and Trump signed the executive order on Holocaust Remembrance Day.
Here are the facts. Trump’s executive order will cost more lives than it will save. We have been sent a clear message by the Trump administration about what this country will be like for at least the next four years: non-inclusive, racist, and non-accepting of religious diversity. We are not "Making America Great Again." We’re losing what could have ever made our country great in the first place.
