It’s been approved, blocked, put on hold, and finally whittled down to its core like a figurine. It is the Executive Order: Protecting the Nation from Foreign Terrorist Entry into the United States, colloquially known as the Immigration Ban. Now you may think that the ban only affects foreign nationals, not Americans. You’d be wrong.
Immigrants from the six, formerly seven, banned countries have made America home since immigrants were (somewhat) freely allowed to travel to the United States at its founding. Their children, grandchildren, and great grand children make up many of the threads of our beautiful democratic republic. They have served as our doctors, lawyers, service members, and yes even beauty pageant contestants. In 2016, 19 year old Halima Aden, a Somali-American model, was the first woman to participate in the Miss Minnesota USA pageant wearing a hijab and burkini; now her diverse and utterly American image has taken the world by storm. Ferial Govashiri, an Iranian-American, served as a political aide to President Barack Obama in 2014 until the end of his second term. She worked on the National Security Council during her time in the White House and was a valuable asset being fluent in both English and Persian.
In the 241 years that the United States has been an independent nation, millions of Iranians, Syrians, Yemenese, Libyans, Sudanese, and Somalians have immigrated to the United States and proudly become American citizens; and not always because their own countries were places to flee from.
Iran, despite being a theocratic republic, is seemingly calm and free country compared to the other countries of the Middle East and developing world. ISIS has little influence in the country as Shia Muslims and Iranians in general pose the greatest threat to ISIS in the Middle East and serve as their greatest enemy. Iran is the largest Shia Muslim country in the world and was the first country to deploy troops to fight ISIS long before any western countries took the threat seriously. Most Iranians aren’t fleeing their country to come to the United States, rather they are taking what money, skills, and education they gained and growing it in the United States. Iranian women make up one of the largest populations of STEM graduates in the world. Unlike Saudi Arabia, one of the United States’ greatest allies and a country not on the ban list, women are allowed to drive in Iran, pursue an education, and work a job or career. While there are certainly restrictions due to the relentless presence of a religious supreme leader, Ayatollah Khameini, Iranians showed great desire for democracy in 2009 with the green movement, a political movement that pushed against the illegal declaration of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad as the winner of the presidential campaign and largely backed democratic candidate Mir Hossein Mousavi. Furthermore, in their most recent election the Iranian people freely and fairly elected a liberal democratic candidate to the presidency: Hassan Rouhani. Liberal and democratic here being relative terms; Rouhani is a lawyer, academic, former diplomat and Islamic cleric.
Knowing a few facts about just one of the banned countries, have I sparked your interest to learn more? Before you embark on a quest to learn about the extensive and rich culture, history and politics of these six countries, let’s cover some ground rules in case personal testimony is an avenue you explore in your research. Here are 10 things you shouldn’t say to someone affected by the immigration ban:
- Being banned or having loved ones banned is not the same as having some difficulty traveling. To my coworker who empathized with me that my 87-year-old grandmother was legally barred from entering the United States for my college graduation by mentioning how hard it is for her to travel and see family in Massachusetts due to work, time, and financial constraints: stop. Just stop. While it may be hard for you to travel to Massachusetts to see Cousin Becky who you just saw two months ago for the grand ole family reunion, it is not the same as being legally barred from entering the country to see your granddaughter on the happiest day of her life yet. Did I mention how difficult it was to travel to/from the Middle East even before the ban? No direct flights, few/no American embassies, few diplomatic courtesies or protections, hundreds if not thousands of dollars purely for airfare and documents, and that’s just the beginning.
- It’s nothing personal but the president has to put safety first. You understand right? No I don’t understand actually. Explain to me how banning immigration from 6 countries from which no citizen or refugee has ever committed a terror attack against the United States keeps us safe?
- Well we have to anticipate the threat; these countries don’t like us. It’s precautionary. If we’re about to anticipate every threat made against us, can we at least start with the most credible and urgent ones? Like white, “lone wolf” males who shoot up black churches and elementary schools.
- Do you WANT another 9/11 to happen? Not a single one of the 9/11 hijackers came from countries currently on the ban list. In short, 9/11 would have still happened even if this ban was in place long before it.
- Why do WE have to let everyone in? What about other countries? We have taken in an alarmingly small number of refugees compared to other countries. If we are going to call ourselves a world power, leader of the free world, and have these words:
Give me your tired, your poor, Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, The wretched refuse of your teeming shore. Send these, the homeless, tempest-tossed to me, I lift my lamp beside the golden door!
inscribed on our Statue of Liberty, we better deliver on our promises.
- The people voted. Yes they did, and the popular vote reflects that THIS was not the path the people voted for.
- It [the ban] wouldn’t become law if it was unconstitutional! That’s true; that’s why it has been blocked three times with unanimous agreement among the lower and appeals courts. The Supreme Court itself blocked most of the bill.
- It’s only for 90 days! Actually several clauses of the executive order allow for permanent implementation of the order at the President’s discretion following reports given at the end of the 90 day period. Please read the actual order and not the Fox News or CNN summary.
- Does it really hurt anyone to wait 90 days? I don’t know, how about we stick you in war torn Syria for 90 days and see how you fare?
- It’s nothing personal/It’s just politics and I don’t want to get into it/I just couldn’t vote for Hillary/I didn’t know Trump was going to implement a ban. It IS personal; you’ve affected my family and family is VERY personal. Is your second amendment right to a firearm just politics? No, it’s a point of pride and sensitivity. The same goes for my family; none of this is “just politics.” If you didn’t want to get into it, you shouldn’t have voted to change my future and that of my family. You could but you chose not to. Mind you, Hillary was not the only other option.
December 7, 2015: “Donald J. Trump is calling for a total and complete shutdown of Muslims entering the United States until our country’s representatives can figure out what the hell is going on. We have no choice. We have no choice. We have no choice.” -Donald Trump
Don’t take my word for it, take his.
It’s up to you, America. Do the right thing or let history vilify you for turning away those in need like you did when you turned away the St. Louis, a German transatlantic liner, carrying 937 almost all Jewish refugees escaping the Third Reich. The choice is yours, but while you contemplate that choice please refrain from saying any of the utterly ignorant comments listed above.
Share, discuss, argue, and debate as you like but start a conversation! Avalanches start when snowflakes begin to move.
Khameineh,
All American Avalanche 