Public Comment

ithin hours of Trump’s ban on seven Muslim majority countries, State Department officials crafted a dissenting memo which has gone viral. The memo repudiates Trump’s justification of the ban. Like a chain letter, the memo has been sent to all US embassies around the world in one of the largest protests against presidential policies. Thus far, the memo carries 1,000 signatures but more and more officials wanted to add their names to voice their fierce opposition to Trump’s misguided policies. Many commented that the visa ban would surely “alienate allies” and “hurt America economically.” Our negotiating wizard seems be unaware that foreign travelers inject nearly $250 billion into the American economy and support more than one million jobs. Furthermore, Trump’s stated claim to keep us safer is hogwash. There hasn’t been a single terrorist attack in America by anyone in the targeted seven countries during the past 40 years. According to the Cato Institute, the risk of an American being victim to a terrorist attack by a refugee in a given year is one in 3.6 billion. 

Much like the lasting shame following the forced internment of Japanese-Americans, the racial quotas imposed on non-whites in the 1940s, Trump’s ban has evoked similar outrage. This sentiment was echoed by David Miliband, the head of the International Rescue Committee, who stated “it is a repudiation of fundamental American values, an abandonment of the United States role as a humanitarian leader.”