IMMIGRATIONTrump’s New Immigration Ban: An Arbitrary, Discriminatory Legal Immigration Rewrite
President Trump claims he wants a “merit-based” immigration system, but a system banning people based on their nationality is the opposite of merit-based. It is a national embarrassment.
President Trump plans to rewrite—or, rather, write over—the Immigration and Nationality Act in the coming week. This action would be an absurd affront to the Founders’ constitutional design, no matter how he chooses to do it, but Trump is reportedly planning to reinstate a system of nationality-based discrimination that Congress first adopted in 1924 before repealing it in the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965.
The Supreme Court greenlit this power grab during his first term, and now Trump is taking full advantage of it, doing grave damage to America in the process. The proposed restrictions could target more than one in five legal immigrants to the United States and separate over 150,000 spouses and minor children of US citizens and legal permanent residents from their families in the United States. It would impose incredible damage to the US economy and society based on utterly baseless security concerns.
Nationalities Targeted
rump plans to create a national origins hierarchy. His order will rank countries as either red, orange, yellow, and green:
· “Red” nationalities would be subject to a total ban.
· “Orange” nationalities would be subject to a partial ban.
· “Yellow” nationalities would be subject to new requirements, which could escalate into a “Red” or “Orange” classification if their governments fail to adopt changes within 60 days.
· “Green” nationalities would presumably be required to avoid restrictions.
Reuters and New York Times have reported slightly different lists. The two outlets include 44 potential nationalities who could be targeted—about one in five countries in the world. The Times list is 43 countries. The Reuters list is 42. They disagree over whether East Timor, Zimbabwe, and Mali will appear on the list at all.
Both lists agree that immigrants from 10 countries—Afghanistan, Cuba, Iran, Libya, North Korea, Somalia, Sudan, Syria, Venezuela, and Yemen—will be totally banned (Red), and that immigrants from five countries—Eritrea, Haiti, Laos, Myanmar, and South Sudan—will be mostly banned (Orange). The Times lists one extra “red” country (Bhutan), which is listed as yellow by Reuters, and it also lists five extra “Orange” countries, which Reuters lists as yellow: Belarus, Pakistan, Russia, Sierra Leone, and Turkmenistan.
