Visa curbs not a Muslim ban: Trump

WASHINGTON: Maintaining that there are “a lot of bad dudes out there,“ US President Donald Trump on Monday defended his ban on refugees and travellers from several Muslim countries even as protests and demonstrations erupted over the weekend at airports and public squares in America's liberal cities.

Trump released a statement asserting, “To be clear, this is not a

Muslim ban

...this is about terror and keeping our country safe.“ “There is nothing nice about searching for terrorists before they can enter our country. This was a big part of my campaign. Study the world!“ Trump tweeted after reports emerged of families being sundered and studies disrupted by the Presidential decree, including one of a five-year-old Iranian child who was detained and separated from his mother on arrival at Washington Dulles airport, and a 17-year old Syrian whose confirmed admission to MIT was scuppered by the ban.

Trump insisted that “Only 109 people out of 325,000 were detained and held for questioning“ and “Big problems at airports were caused by Delta computer outage, protesters and the tears of Senator Schumer.“ The new decree “is going well with very few problems,“ he quoted his homeland secretary Gen John Kelly as saying, after he himself said over the weekend that it was going “nicely“ despite the fervour and chaos at major airports that see foreign arrivals.

The “tears of Senator Schumer“ was a reference to the New York lawmaker Charles Schumer who told a television interviewer emotionally on Sunday that Trump's executive order was “mean-spirited and un-American.“ “Tears are running down the cheeks of the Statue of Liberty tonight as a grand tradition of America, welcoming immigrants, that has existed since America was founded, has been stomped upon,“ Schumer said in an earlier statement, the words illustrated by the front page of the New York Daily News that showed the Statue of Liberty in tears.

Opposition to the presidential order extended across the political divide amid talk of rescinding it through bipartisan legislative action. Two Republican lawmakers also questioned it, pointing out that it will prevent interpreters, diplomats, and military personnel who were fighting on the American side in troubled Muslim countries from coming to the US.

“Our most important allies in the fight against ISIL are the vast majority of Muslims who reject its apocalyptic ideology of hatred. This executive order sends a signal, intended or not, that America does not want Muslims coming into our country ...we fear this executive order may do more to help terrorist recruitment than improve our security,“ wrote Senators John McCain and Lindsay Graham.

Trump's response to the Republican grandees, who have opposed him within the party, was withering. He said they are “sadly weak on immigration“ and advised them to “focus their energies on IS, illegal immigration and border security instead of looking to start World War III.“ However, in a sign that the Presidential order was not properly thought through and vetted, the Trump administration clarified over the weekend that travellers holding green cards (permanent residency) from the red-flagged countries were exempt from the ban.

But the clarification did little to allay the fears of foreign-born immigrants and travellers because the administration has given such wide latitude to immigration officials. Civil liberties groups and activists camped out at airports in Washington DC and New York to help the stranded and the detained, calling on pro-bono lawyers to help them address issues arising from the Presidential order amid reports of airport personnel declining to furnish information in compliance with court orders.

On the ground there were protests by civil rights activists and immigrants, including one in front of the White House where one child held a sign reading “No More Mean Acts.“

Ironically, even as chants in support of refugees and immigrants rent the air, Trump was in the White House, hosting the screening of the movie “Finding Dory“ for staff and their family members. The movie, is about a fish trying to reunite with its family.