Press. voanews.com
Last Friday,
Sudanese-born Nisrin Elamin, a PhD student at Stanford University, was
returning to the United States from a research trip to her home country. She
did not realize she had returned the same day President Donald Trump issued an
executive order temporarily barring citizens from seven countries, including
Sudan. On arrival at Kennedy Airport in New York, she was briefly handcuffed,
patted down and detained for five hours. Not knowing if she would be deported,
she said she cried and felt humiliated.
Elamin said she
is one of the lucky ones.
“My experience
pales in comparison to the vast majority affected by this order: the people who
were sent back,” she said in a written statement to VOA. “To me this is a
misguided policy targeting people from countries like my own, Sudan, where
people are fleeing injustice, war and persecution.”
Elamin is one of
tens of thousands of immigrants and visitors from countries affected by the
president’s order. The order prohibits people from seven African and Middle
Eastern countries from entering the United States for 90 days and halts the
U.S. refugee resettlement for 120 days.
U.S. opinion
evenly split
The order caused
widespread chaos at airports over the weekend and prompted mass demonstrations
in major U.S. cities. But many Americans are in favor of the order, according
to a poll released Wednesday that showed public support at about 50 percent.
Murshid Barud, a
Minnesota resident of Somali origin, backs the president’s action. Barud, who
sits on the executive committee of the state’s Republican Party, says the best
thing the United States can do is to help the Somalis already living here
assimilate, instead of taking in more refugees.
“Those folks should be [examining] how we
reintegrate those kids that are already here in the United States with no high
school diploma, with no education, with no path to successful life, instead of
bringing refugees that are going to have a very hard time in these tough times
in the United States,” he told VOA.
Barud said the
hundreds of thousands of Somali refugees across the Horn of Africa should try
to build new lives in Somalia, despite the chronic chaos and violence there. “Anybody
who cares about the Somali refugees should actually help them resettle in their
own home country,” he said. “And make sure that there is peace, security and
prosperity in their home country."
Others say
Trump’s intent has been distorted as being against Islam. This is partially due
to the inflammatory rhetoric Trump used on the campaign trail. But Mesfin
Beshir, an Ethiopian-American and former refugee who ran for a state Senate
seat in Massachusetts as a Republican, said he doesn’t believe the order is
discriminatory against Islam.
“I think he's
trying to act for prevention,” he said. “He is being proactive rather than
reactive.” African immigrant Charles Kambanda, an attorney of Rwandan origin
practicing in New York, said the order is simply an expansion of policies under
former president Barack Obama identifying people from the seven countries
covered by Trump’s order for additional screening and questioning. Kambanda
pointed out that although the United States is a generous country that has
historically taken in refugees, it has no obligation to do so if that could put
its citizens at risk.
Does the order
protect Americans?
Protecting
Americans was the reason Trump cited for his directives. All of the countries
affected by the travel ban have a history of hosting or supporting groups the
United States has designated as terrorist, most notably al-Qaida and Islamic
State.
However, John
Cohen, former counterterrorism coordinator and acting undersecretary for
intelligence and analysis at the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, said the
order actually represents a break from the best practices adopted for
screenings in recent years.
Authorities have
moved away from country-specific vetting programs and focused more on
intelligence-driven vetting based on the travel patterns and behaviors of
potential terrorists, he said.
Cohen said that
using such information helps officials focus their attention on people most
likely to pose a threat. “The problem with country-based vetting or
country-based restrictions is that you are negatively impacting a large number
of people who've done nothing wrong,” he said. The order also creates ill will
toward the United States, Cohen said, and does nothing to address the most
likely perpetrators of future attacks: lone wolf attackers already living in
the country.
“The primary
terrorist threat facing the United States today comes from individuals who are
already here, who become inspired by what they see on the internet and who
carry out terrorist attacks in this country independent of any foreign
terrorist organization,” Cohen said.
During the past
two years, the United States has seen multiple attacks by people who fit that
description, he said, such as the man who opened fire inside Orlando’s Pulse
nightclub, killing nearly 50 people.
So Cohen is not
a believer in Trump’s directives.
“This order, in
particular the restrictions of travel from these countries, will do nothing to
address that serious threat currently facing the U.S.,” he said.
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