OPINION:
President Trump hit the courthouse wall trying to prevent immigrants from seven terror-exporting nations from entering the United States until they can be properly vetted. This enables radical Islamic saboteurs to sneak past inefficient U.S. screening procedures like wolves among innocent sheep. Until the president’s new vetting plans are in place, Congress must seek alternative measures to expel bad actors once discovered. Republican congressmen, fortunately, are working on it.
Mr. Trump was elected in part on the promise to keep Americans safe — a pledge that Barack Obama preferred to honor in the breach. Once in the Oval Office, the Donald wasted no time dispatching an executive order halting, temporarily, the wave of immigrants from only seven of the 49 Muslim-majority nations. He wanted to subject these immigrants to “extreme vetting.” The order applied not just to Muslims, as the left insists, but everyone — Jews, Christians, Hottentots and others — from the seven countries identified by the Obama administration as likely exporters of terror.
The U.S. Code gives the chief executive authority to guard the nation’s door: “Whenever the President finds that the entry of any aliens or of any class of aliens into the United States would be detrimental to the interests of the United States, he may by proclamation, and for such period as he shall deem [necessary,] suspend the entry of all aliens or any class of aliens as immigrants or nonimmigrants, or impose on entry of aliens any restrictions he may deem appropriate.”
That wasn’t clear enough for U.S. District Court Judge James Robart in Seattle, who apparently has trouble with the English language. He blocked the president’s order, propping open the door for opportunistic aliens and triggering a review by the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. That court may issue a decision Thursday, probably to be dispatched on further appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court.
Rep. Jeff Duncan, South Carolina Republican, has introduced the Terrorist Deportation Act, which would make persons listed in the Terrorist Screening Database, who are neither citizens nor permanent residents, subject to mandatory deportation. The database contains about a million names, 5 percent of whom are U.S. citizens, and the bill would allow U.S. authorities to subject foreign nationals on that list to deportation.
Similarly, Rep. Brian Babin of Texas has filed the Criminal Alien Deportation Act, which would deny federal assistance to any nation that denies or delays the readmittance of its citizens who have been ordered out of the United States, and would prohibit issuance of visas for visitors from those nations. These two measures would give authorities the necessary time and the means to protect America from visitors with links to terrorist organizations.
Immigration is no longer simply about social policy — it’s about national security. The House Homeland Security Committee published a report Feb. 6 identifying an Achilles heel at the nation’s airports. Titled “America’s Airports: The Threat from Within,” the report describes instances in which airline employees attempted to carry out various criminal acts, including bombing, smuggling of explosives, and terrorist activities in other countries.
Stubborn refusal to recognize the domestic threat hampered President Obama’s attempt to prevent attacks on American soil. Mr. Trump’s executive order signals his determination to avoid the same mistake. Between the president and Republican lawmakers, there is hope a defensive plan will emerge that can keep Americans safe from attack in their homeland. We’re all immigrants, and we all deserve protection.
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