Introduction
Executive Orders are legally binding instructions issued by the President of the United States, acting as the head of the Executive Branch of the federal government. Executive Orders are usually applied to direct federal agencies and administrators in their implementation of congressionally recognized policies and laws. However, in many cases, they have been used to direct different federal agencies in directions opposing congressional determinations (“Immigration Policy of Donald Trump”).
Not all Executive Orders are made equally. Proclamations, for instance, are a form of executive action that is usually ceremonial or symbolic, for example, when the President of the United States announces National Take Your Children to Work Day. Another subsection of Executive Orders (EOs) relates to national security or defense matters. These have usually been recognized as National Security Directives (NSDs). During the Clinton presidency, they were named Presidential Decision Directives (“Travel Ban 3.0 – President Trump Revises Travel Ban”).
Executive Orders (EOs) do not require approval from Congress to be effective, but they have a similar legal weight to rules approved by the American Congress. The President’s authority to issue Executive Orders (EOs) is written in Article II, Section 1 of the United States Constitution, which endows the President with executive power. Section 3 of Article II moreover requires the President of the United States to take care that the laws are faithfully implemented. To implement or execute the laws of the country, Presidents of the United States can provide guidance and directions to Executive Branch organizations and departments, frequently in the form of Executive Orders (EOs) (“Travel Ban 3.0 – President Trump Revises Travel Ban”).
This essay will examine Trump’s Executive Order that bans citizens of 7 Muslim-majority countries from entering the United States.
Trump’s Original Immigration Ban
The President of the United States, Donald Trump, who ran for the presidency on a promise to ban Muslims from arriving in the United States, signed an Executive Order (EO) on Jan. 27, 2017, that temporarily denied entry to citizens of 7 Muslim-majority nations. A court judgment temporarily placed that ban on hold. However, Mr. Trump assumed that he had made a policy to announce a new version of the immigration order shortly, expecting it would address the court’s concerns, and if it did not, the legal tug of war might arise all over the United States again (“Immigration Policy of Donald Trump”).
Outside the court, the government presented other procedures to crack down on migration. On Feb. 21, 2017, the Department of Homeland Security announced guidance documents that expanded the range of immigrants who were considered priorities for deportation; before that, only undocumented settlers who had committed serious crimes were targeted, but under the new policy, anybody arrested, charged, or suspected of any misconduct or crime was considered a priority for deportation. The measures did, though, leave protections intact for immigrants who arrived unlawfully as children. Enforcing the rules would include the appointment of hundreds of new immigration and customs agents (“Immigration Policy of Donald Trump”).
President Trump’s Jan. 27, 2017, executive order encountered a major roadblock on Feb. 3, 2017, when the federal judge in Seattle, James Robert, announced an injunction to immediately stop it nationwide. The Justice Department appealed to a higher court in San Francisco, where attorneys for the department and many states opposed the ban and argued over whether it should be restored. On Feb. 9, 2017, the federal appeals court refused to restore the ban, and rather than take it to court for a second time, the President ordered the announcement of a new order (“Travel Ban 3.0 – President Trump Revises Travel Ban”).
Before Judge Robert’s ruling, U.S. administrators had already provisionally canceled 60,000 visas for people from the 7 Muslim-majority nations, but the State Department said that it had reversed the cancellations, and Homeland Security said it would stop enforcing the ban. After receiving the go-ahead signal from U.S. Customs and Border Protection, airlines all over the world (including Canada’s main airline carriers) began permitting people from the affected nations to board flights to the United States again (“Immigration Policy of Donald Trump”).
Although the immigration ban fueled contentious discussion throughout the United States, it did not come up when Justin Trudeau (Canadian Prime Minister) visited the White House on Feb. 13, 2016. Minister of Public Safety Ralph Goodale confirmed this the next day. Mr. Goodale stated that he did plan to speak with his counterpart later about this (“Immigration Policy of Donald Trump”).
Who Was Targeted By That Ban?
People from 7 populous Muslim nations: The executive order barred Syrian, Libyan, Somali, Sudanese, Iranian, Iraqi, and Yemeni citizens from entering the United States for 90 days. In principle, this meant the ban would expire on April 27, 2017. However, John Kelly, the Homeland Security chief, signaled that certain countries might continue to be listed indefinitely. The Executive Order also prohibited Syrian citizens from obtaining visas until the President, who supposed that the current screening arrangement was susceptible to violent activities, signed off on new screening measures (“Immigration Policy of Donald Trump”; “Travel Ban 3.0 – President Trump Revises Travel Ban”).
Refugees: The Executive Order placed all refugee entries on hold for 120 days, which would end on May 27, 2016, with the Syrian refugee process being postponed for an indefinite period. The Executive Order (EO) also reduced the total number of refugees the United States planned to admit in that financial year to 500,000 people from 1.1 million people. In the previous year, the country granted entry to 84,995 refugees (“Travel Ban 3.0 – President Trump Revises Travel Ban”).
Other countries: The President’s Executive Order instructed Homeland Security, the national intelligence director, and the State Department to draw up principles for screening new visitors who wanted to visit the US, create a list of nations that did not provide the evidence they required, and exclude people from those nations if the information was not provided within 60 days. However, on Feb. 3, 2017, Homeland Security provided further clarification of the executive order, reiterating that there were no plans to include additional nations beyond the seven that were already affected (“Immigration Policy of Donald Trump”).
Conclusion
If the travel ban is executed, numerous areas of the U.S. economy are expected to be hurt. Indeed, numerous life-science experts view President Trump’s travel ban as damaging to the foundations of educational and technical organizations. Trump’s prejudiced travel ban threatens the model of open, timely, and free worldwide scientific discussion and has reduced the efficiency of progress and modernization. The ability of foreign scientists in the U.S. to travel overseas to attend scientific seminars and discussions will be limited, as will the ability of foreign researchers to take part in scientific conferences or visit scientific organizations in the United States. These Executive Orders will also significantly affect the global recruitment of scientific talent, and they will eventually decrease American scientific competitiveness on the world stage. A failure to sustain an influx of international talent, combined with a reduction in spending on life-science study and development, which the United States has been observing since 1999, suggests a forbidding outlook for the future science and industrial sectors in the nation. Our scientific importance must not be traded for a short period of political improvement (“Immigration Policy of Donald Trump”).
There is worldwide protest and anger among Muslim-majority countries about this ban. Some countries are also planning to tighten visa policies against people from the United States (“Immigration Policy of Donald Trump”).
Works Cited
“Immigration Policy of Donald Trump.” Wikipedia 25 Sept. 2017. Wikipedia. Web. 28 Sept. 2017.
“Travel Ban 3.0 – President Trump Revises Travel Ban.” N.p., n.d. Web. 28 Sept. 2017.
Academic Master Education Team is a group of academic editors and subject specialists responsible for producing structured, research-backed essays across multiple disciplines. Each article is developed following Academic Master’s Editorial Policy and supported by credible academic references. The team ensures clarity, citation accuracy, and adherence to ethical academic writing standards
Content reviewed under Academic Master Editorial Policy.
