US President Donald Trump has defended his executive order ban on seven Islamic countries, saying it isn't a 'Muslim ban', rather an 'extreme vetting' . In a White House statement on Saturday afternoon, he said:
'My policy is similar to what President Obama did in 2011 when he banned visas for refugees from Iraq for six months,' Trump said of his own order, which is slated to expire in 90 days. Obama's directive, carried out in response to a specific terror threat, affected only refugees.
He added that the seven countries– Iran, Iraq, Libya, Somalia Sudan, Syria and Yemen – 'are the same countries previously identified by the Obama administration as sources of terror.' He continued..
'To be clear, this is not a Muslim ban, as the media is falsely reporting. This is not about religion – this is about terror and keeping our country safe. There are over 40 different countries worldwide that are majority Muslim that are not affected by this order.'
'What people need to understand is that 325,000 foreign travelers came into the United States.' 'About 109 of those people were retained – detained for further questioning because they came from the identified seven countries that the Obama administration and both houses of Congress have identified as being countries that harbor and train terrorists.' Then he went ahead and tweeted:
White House official Reince Priebus said on NBC's 'Meet the Press' that one of the Democrats' main points of contention – a fear that the executive order made lawful permanent residents, those holding 'green cards,' eligible for the same special screening as first-time visitors.
He said:
'The executive order doesn't affect green card holders moving forward,' Priebus said.
'If they have a person that's traveling back and forth to Libya or Somalia or Yemen, I would suspect within their discretion, they might ask a few more questions at JFK or some other airport when someone's coming back and forth within their discretionary authority as a customs and border patrol agent,' he said.
'And what I'm saying is I would suspect that most Americans would agree that that might be a good thing to do.' Secretary of Homeland Security John Kelly declared the entry of lawful permanent residents, also known as green card holders, to be of national interest on Sunday evening. He said:
'In applying the provisions of the president's executive order, I hereby deem the entry of lawful permanent residents to be in the national interest,' he said in a statement.
'Accordingly, absent the receipt of significant derogatory information indicating a serious threat to public safety and welfare, lawful permanent resident status will be a dispositive factor in our case-by-case determinations.' Even after Kelly’s statement there were still unanswered questions about what the government intended to do about refugees who had received permission to come to the United States before Trump signed his order Friday afternoon.
Two court rulings questioned whether Trump could reject by executive action valid immigration documents issued by the government itself. Airports remained the frontline in the battle. Crowds gathered at airports in Miami, Dallas, Cleveland, Charlotte, N.C., New York, Washington, San Francisco and Chicago. Exasperation grew on all sides, and some immigration officials threw up their hands.
“They finally stopped talking to us altogether and told us to call President Trump,” said Becca Heller, director of the International Refugee Assistance Project.
Source: Daily Mail
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