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The Student Newspaper of DePaul University

The DePaulia

The Student Newspaper of DePaul University

The DePaulia

The Student Newspaper of DePaul University

The DePaulia

Trump’s travel ban remains suspended, but its impact carries on

Jan. 27, President Donald Trump issued an executive order that banned refugees from seven Muslim-majority nations from traveling. Trump stated this was necessary to keep America safe, when rather it has been causing more harm across the globe.

This Muslim ban is not just an executive order to keep everyone safe, it’s a result of Islamophobia. By banning individuals who have the right to travel freely from Iran, Iraq, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria and Yemen, is not only unconstitutional, but it portrays the sentiment from the White House that Muslim travelers and residents are not welcome to the U.S.

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Feb. 3 was a victory day for those opposing the travel ban, U.S. district Judge James L. Robart from Seattle halted the executive order on a nationwide ruling. In the most recent update surrounding the travel ban, three U.S. appeals court members upheld the suspension, which led to an angry tweet from President Donald Trump who tweeted “see you in court” in response to his loss in reinstating the ban.

While Trump and his administration are pushing for the travel ban to be reinstated because of national security, their responses towards the backlash are unpresidential. The expulsion of Sally Yates from her position as acting attorney general because of her position against legally defending the order speaks volumes of how the administration will handle future offenses.

Press Secretary Sean Spicer even commented, “I think that they should either get with the program or they can go.”

“As a person with such a high level of influence, Trump should be able to take criticism and respect other’s points of view,” Katherine Power, a DePaul senior said. “The way he fired the attorney general worries me because it shows how he will defame other people’s character and knock them down just to get what he wants, without attempting to hear the other side of the story or how it will affect others.”

While national security seems to be the biggest motive behind Trump’s highly controversial and unethical executive order, the travel ban rejects traveling refugees and immigrants an opportunity to create a better life for their family and themselves. The argument can be made the order is based on principles of Islamophobia. This is disgraceful and not at all what America is about.

DePaul junior Isabel Aldape had a different point of view on the ban.

“I agree with it as a temporary solution to a permanent problem, we need to develop a stronger and more secure screening systems for not only Muslims but anyone coming into America because of the events that have happened due to terrorist acts missed by a faulty security check somewhere down the line,” Aldape said. “It’s harsh, but that’s what we need right now until we figure this out.”

Like Aldape said, it is harsh, and those who support the ban fail to understand the position the travel ban has put America in regards to international relations. It will forever remain as an ugly mark in American history towards Islamic relations; it creates fear in many because it goes against so much of what this country was built on. Many countries including Peru, China and Colombia are coming together to mobilize against Trump. Iran has even banned American citizens from entering their country in retaliation of Trump’s executive order.

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(Graphic by Jacqueline Lin / The DePaulia)

Barring refugees, visa holders and immigrants with green card status, for the first 48 hours of the ban, from entering the U.S. only succeeds in highlighting the Trump administration’s incorrect leadership style.

The question has been posed if this ban even protects us from terrorism, which it does not because terrorism is everywhere. You do not have to be a certain religion or race to be a terrorist and that is something everyone should understand from the history of attacks countries have seen in the past.

The Trump administration says this is not a ban on Muslim people, but the several countries that are under the ban are all predominantly Muslim. Trump says he is just trying to keep America safe, but what he fails to realize is this ban targets those who already have been in the U.S. and those who have worked in the U.S.. Even people with green cards who have went through a long process to be able to live in the U.S. are being denied their rights.

“The travel ban does put the U.S. in danger because it’s (going to) put our allies against us, and it’s going to make those people already in the U.S. revolt, and may result into more “attacks,” freshman Natalia Bies, majoring in economics and minoring in political science, said. “Leaders from other countries have said that (this shows the U.S.’ true colors) so everyone is going to see Trump as the face of America.”

It is not fair for Trump to be able to create an executive order that takes away so many people’s rights. Having our country’s representatives not support or welcome all types of people into America is hurtful and not what, we as Americans, are supposed to believe.

During the procession of the ban, CEOs from companies like Facebook, Lyft, Starbucks and many more have reached out to the public to make it known they do not stand with Trump’s executive action. Many of them voiced that their own family members once migrated to the U.S.

Lyft took an extra step to show their support by donating $1 million over the next four years to the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), as well as Starbucks, which pledged to hire 10,000 refugees in 75 countries over the next few years. However the CEO of Uber, recently made it public that he supported Trump and mentioned he was on his advisory council. He eventually backed down because of the large amount of criticism he began to receive.

This not only brings awareness to the situation, but allows our crumbling nation to rise together and stand up against Trump. There have been recent reports of people coming together to protest against this ban at different airports. It’s a great message to send to Trump that we, as a nation, will not allow our rights to be taken away, that we will stand together to fight this and whatever else he throws at us in the future.

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