Donald Trump’s Unconstitutional Executive Order

On Friday, January 30, Donald Trump signed an executive order indefinitely banning refugees from Syria. He also blocked all immigrants from seven countries from entering the United States for 90 days. These countries include Iran, Iraq, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria, and Yemen.

There are multiple conflicting views regarding the ban. On one hand, Fareed Zakaria, a CNN contributor, stated the fact that there has been a total of zero people who have died from a terrorist attack from the seven countries Donald Trump banned. However, three countries he didn’t ban–United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, and Egypt–have accumulated a total of  2,845 Americans killed from a terrorist attack.

On the opposite side, many different prominent White House figures, including Sean Spicer, the White House Press Secretary, have stated that the ban is for the protection of American citizens. One of their main arguments is that only 109 people were detained because of the executive order.

According to the The New York Times, a judge from Brooklyn, New York, Ann Donnelly, blocked parts of the executive order. They also said the judge prevented people already in the United States from being deported if they were caught in the United States as the executive order was issued. A Washington state judge, James Robart, has stopped the executive order in its entirety. On Friday, February 4, he ordered a full halt to the executive order.

On January 31st, former acting Attorney General, Sally Yates, put out a statement that she does not believe the ban was legal, and she would not defend it. She was shortly fired and replaced by Dana Boente.

More controversial comments have been made by the Trump administration. Sean Spicer said not to call the travel ban an actual ban, even though he and Donald Trump have both referred to it as a ban. They have received backslash for this. Not only are multiple news agencies, excluding Fox News, coming out against Donald Trump, but the citizens of the United States are showing their support for the refugees and immigrants of the banned countries.