Eight Ways Trump’s Executive Order On Immigration Makes Us Less Safe

NurPhoto via Getty Images In issuing his executive order immediately banning refugees and hundreds of thousands of Muslim travelers from the United States, President Trump claimed he wanted “to protect the American people from terrorist attacks by foreign nationals.” In fact, national security experts across the political spectrum say his order does just the opposite. Calling for the order to be rescinded, former CIA Director Michael Hayden, former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright and over 100 other former senior government officials and military service members who served both the Obama and Bush Administrations are saying the executive order “not only jeopardizes tens of thousands of lives, it has caused a crisis right here in America and will do long-term damage to our national security.” Here are eight ways the order does just that: 1. The order supports terrorists’ claims that the U.S. is at war with Islam, by banning all nationals from seven predominantly Muslim countries for an extended period, and explicitly favoring Christian refugees. That’s terrorists’ primary recruiting point: that Muslims must fight back. As former CIA Director and U.S. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta said, the order “gives ISIS a major argument that I think will help them in recruiting and that increases the chances of a potential attack in this country.” 2. The order harms critically important U.S. relations with our partners in the Middle East. Some of those, like Iraq, are countries whose nationals have all been banned. Others, like Jordan, now face huge political hurdles cooperating with a U.S. government that has instituted what’s perceived globally as a “Muslim ban.” The executive order makes it virtually impossible for them to continue to provide the support, intelligence and resources the U.S. depends upon to fight terrorism. As General Hayden told The Washington Post: the order “makes it harder for our allies to side with us.” 3. The order will increase anti-American sentiment among ordinary, innocent people in the targeted countries and beyond. With the stroke of a pen, 220 million citizens lost the opportunity to travel to the United States for an extended period of time. This sent the message that we see them all as dangerous, inviting them to view us as enemies as well. As about 1,000 State Department officials have pointed out in a dissent memo, almost one-third of populations in these countries are under 15 yrs old. Shunning them now will affect those societies’ perceptions of the United States for decades to come, negatively influencing their future leaders. This could be a “tipping point toward radicalization,” the U.S. foreign service officials warned. 4. The order directly undermines our key allies in the Middle East. By suspending all refugee resettlement for at least 120 days, prioritizing religious minority refugees, blanket banning all travel for nationals from seven Muslim-majority countries temporarily, and suspending all Syrian refugee resettlement indefinitely, our key allies in the Middle East, who have accepted large numbers of Syrian refugees, will find their resources further strained and will face further political opposition […]

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