On Thursday, a federal appeals court based in Virginia handed President Donald Trump another defeat in his efforts to block immigrants from six nations -- Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria and Yemen -- from entering the United States. It is likely to go to the US Supreme Court next. The president would be wiser to recognize he cannot impose a religious-based ban.
And whether he wants to or not -- he cannot take back what he repeatedly said on the campaign trail.
Trump surrogates have tried to backpedal much of what candidate Trump said as simply rhetoric, comments made off the cuff. But candidate Trump was resolute about wanting a complete ban on Muslims while campaigning. He has changed his tune now, but judges still cannot un-hear what was said.
Writing for the majority, Roger Gregory, chief judge of the Fourth US Circuit Court of Appeals in Richmond, wrote Trump’s executive order, “speaks with vague words of national security, but in context drips with religious intolerance, animus and discrimination.”
Ten of the 13 judges participating in the decision supported blocking the ban; three judges dissented.
Meanwhile, the Ninth Circuit based in San Francisco, is expected to rule shortly on whether it will uphold a Hawaii judge’s ruling blocking the travel ban. So even if the Fourth Circuit had decided for Trump, the ban would be blocked until that ruling.
The president first issued an executive ordering banning immigrants from seven nations on Jan. 27; Iraq was included in that executive order. It was blocked by courts. Trump wrote a new executive order -- one that still temporarily suspends the US refugee program for 120 days, as well -- and hoped the revised version would pass legal muster.
But the president can’t get past his past rhetoric -- he once called for “a total and complete shutdown of Muslims entering the US.” It will be hard to dispel the belief that the current ban is not religious based when Trump’s words and those of his surrogates, like former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani, support the theory that a ban affecting six Muslim-majority nations is a Muslim ban. It is also hard to dismiss the fact that nationals from these six nations are not connected to terrorist attacks on US soil.
What we are seeing here and abroad is that citizens are being radicalized either through the Internet or by other sources. The ideology that is twisting minds must be attacked, but a blanket ban on Muslims or Muslims from certain countries will have the opposite effect on fighting the spread of terrorism. Anti-terrorist experts across the globe continue to state the most effective weapon against a terrorist attack is information from members of the would-be terrorist’s community. That requires trust.
Keeping the nation safe is a responsibility of the president. And there is no question US immigration policy should be reformed. That reform should come from within Congress with guidance from the executive branch.
Regardless of the Fourth Circuit ruling, the case will likely move to the Supreme Court. There, we hope, justices will see this as an anti-Muslim political statement wrapped up as immigration policy.
Trump has a responsibility to keep America safe. He also has one to keep America American.
