Trump Ban Puts Refugees, Immigrants on Way to U.S. in Legal Limbo

Trump’s order suspends the immigration of all people from countries with ties to terror including Syria, Yemen, Sudan, Somalia, Iraq, Iran and Libya for 90 days. It also called for complete suspension of allowing Syrian refugees into the country for an indefinite period.

“People are beginning to feel their power”, he said. “They already go through a process that can take up to two years”.

Trump said the US program will be suspended until the government can enact stricter security procedures he refers to as “extreme vetting”.

A document on the State Department’s website says, “Refugees are screened more carefully than any other type of traveler to the U.S.” – a statement Beuze agrees with.

Yet even as President George W. Bush and then President Barack Obama launched military action or covert strikes, they publicly stressed that they were committed to religious tolerance and that there was no USA war on Islam. But with the civil war dragging on, that’s not an option and refugees increasingly pursue resettlement to the West because of tough conditions in regional host countries. Alongside a travel ban on citizens of seven, mainly Muslim majority countries, a new “refugee ban” has been the subject of fierce denunciation.

Travellers were handled differently at different points of entry and immigration lawyers were advising clients to change their destination to the more lenient airports, said Yegani, who works with the American Immigration Lawyers Association. Instead, the organization taking the Trump administration at its word that the ban will only last 120 days.

Brad Whitt, a pastor of the 2,800 member congregation Abilene Baptist Church, said that they do not want Christians to stay away from the plight of refugees. Angela Merkel, who, Trump says, he’d like to emulate, said through a spokesman that she “regrets” the ban, which is “not justified”. “Now they’re completely in limbo”.

Trump added that the USA has taken in tens of thousands of people.

The nation took notice past year when Hamtramck, a one-time destination for Europeans and now for Bangladeshi and Yemeni immigrants, became the first known city with a Muslim majority city council. “We were actually very enthusiastic when we were contacted by the Resettlement Support Centre for the Middle East and North Africa (RSC MENA) and started the process and were informed that we qualified”, Abu Mohammad said.

The UN’s rights chief Zeid Ra’ad al Hussein denounced Mr Trump’s executive order on Monday as “mean-spirited”.

“We tell the American people that we hope he (Trump) retracts this decision”, said refugee Mayada Sheik, 37. Forty-one percent of those polled opposed it, with responses largely falling along party lines.

Trump’s own paternal grandfather Frederick Trump was an immigrant from Germany, and considering his current wife and first wife were also immigrants, his supporters argue that he’s only against illegal immigration, not legal immigration.

President Donald Trump barred all refugees from entering the United States for four months – and those from war-ravaged Syria indefinitely – declaring the ban necessary to prevent “radical Islamic terrorists” from entering the nation.

And the uncertainty doesn’t just apply to the refugees themselves.

Many Democrats condemned the order.

“No one really knows what is going to happen”, she said.

Throughout much of Saturday, government officials and security workers were left to guess who from those countries could enter the United States legally and who could not.

And Ed Stetzer, executive director of the Wheaton College Billy Graham Center for Evangelism, wrote that supporting policies out of “fear” will cause Christians to ignore communities they are called to serve.

“We are a simple family”, said Ahmad, the woman’s husband. “The way the order’s been interpreted and implemented has not been consistent”.