Quick takes // By Ben FrankelOf immigrants and terrorists
In a speech on Monday at Youngstown State University in Ohio, Donald Trump continued to modify his approach to immigration: Rather than bar all Muslims from entering the United States, or bar Muslims from conflict-saturated regions of the world, he said he would bar immigration from countries “compromised” by terrorism. These proposals, however, have little, if anything, to do with preventing acts of terrorism in the United States or making the United States safer.
In a speech on Monday at Youngstown State University in Ohio, Donald Trump continued to modify his approach to immigration: Rather than bar all Muslims from entering the United States, or bar Muslims from conflict-saturated regions of the world, he said he would bar immigration from countries “compromised” by terrorism. As has been the case with other Trump’s teleprompter-read speeches billed as “policy speeches,” the Youngstown speech was long on invectives and misstatements of facts, but short on details.
One example: Germany, France, and Belgium have been “compromised by terrorism” — should the United States bar immigration from these three countries?
The speech also made the headlines because Trump called for “extreme vetting” of immigrants, which would include requiring them to respond to a questionnaire with an “ideological test.”
Constitutional and logistical issues regarding ideological tests aside, Trump’s view of terrorism through the prism of immigration makes his proposals irrelevant to preventing terrorism in the United States.
Let’s look at a few facts.
Fact #1:
A question: What do all the ISIS-inspired terrorists who struck France and Belgium between November 2015 (Paris attacks) and July 2016 (Nice Bastille Day attack) — with the Brussels airport attack and other attacks around France in between — have in common?
1. They were all citizens of France and Belgium
2. France and Belgium are members of the Visa Waiver Program (VWP)
Fact #2:
From 2010 to 2014, the annual average number of legal immigrants arriving in the United States was 1,028,700. In 2014, the number was 1,016,518.
During the same period (2010-2014), the number of VWP visitors entering the United States every year averaged a little above 21,000,000. In 2014, the total number of VWP visitors entering the United States was 22,305,757.
Fact #3:
Immigration to the United States is an exceedingly slow process – slowed down by two facts: The waiting list, which occurs because the demand for green cards exceeds the limits enacted by Congress to regulate the level of immigration; and processing backlogs, which represent the length of time it takes for USCIS to adjudicate each application or petition.
According to the State Department’s annual tally, there are currently more than 4.4 million people on the legal immigrant visa waiting list. The people on this waiting list have shown that they have a qualifying family relationship or that they have been sponsored by a qualifying employer.
