Let’s say you’re trying to board a plane from another country and cross the border into the United States.
Who Trump is banning from the US, illustrated
Let’s say you’re trying to board a plane from another country and cross the border into the United States.
There have always been reasons why you can’t enter the US, like if the US believes you’re a spy or a terrorist.
But on Friday, President Donald Trump signed an executive order that added to these reasons — and now innocent people, including refugees, will be turned away. (Read an in-depth explainer here.)
So if you’re trying to enter the US, you now have to pass a few more tests.
You can’t be from one of these majority-Muslim countries
If you’re an immigrant or visa holder from one these countries — Iraq, Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria, or Yemen — you can’t enter US for the next 90 days.
And Trump may add to the list.
If a country doesn’t agree to provide the US certain information about people who apply to come, then they may also be tacked on.
If you’re a refugee, you can’t enter for the next 120 days — and maybe more
If you’re a refugee, you can’t enter the US for the next 120 days.
And once the 120 days is over, you can only enter the US if you’re on a list of countries the US has okayed.
But if you’re a Syrian refugee, then you can’t enter — indefinitely...
Trump has decided that if you’re one of the 5 million refugees fleeing the Syrian war, you can’t enter the US indefinitely.
That’s because Trump doesn’t want to deal with figuring out who the good guys or bad guys are in this Syrian conflict, which is in line with the isolationist philosophy he has espoused.
…unless you’re a “religious minority” in your country
There are some exceptions for refugees though. One is if you are a refugee coming to the US under a preexisting agreement.
But the big exception is if you’re a “religious minority” who is being persecuted in your country. In practice, it seems likely this will help Christians who are persecuted in the Middle East — something Trump has said he would do.
In the future, you’ll have to prove that you can be a “positively contributing member of society”
Trump has instructed the federal government to create a new process to screen people who immigrate to the US. And one thing each person will have to prove is whether he or she would be a “positively contributing member of society.”
And if you’re not one of the first 50,000 refugees, you can’t enter
Let’s say you’re a refugee and you’ve passed through all these gates.
If you weren’t one of the first 50,000 refugees into the US during this fiscal year, then you can’t enter. And since 30,000 refugees have already been resettled in the US, there are only 20,000 slots left.
Reminder: There are nearly 5 million refugees from the Syrian civil war.
Under President Obama, this quota was set at 110,000, so Trump is lowering that number. But it’s also possible that these new hyper-stringent barriers to entry will mean the US doesn’t even reach that quota.
What this all means is that the US, in the year 2017, is using the fear of immigrant terrorism — which is an exceedingly tiny threat — to refuse entry to people based on where they’re from and how they pray.
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