During Christmas break, I had the pleasure of touring Liberty Island in New York City. As I looked up at Emma Lazarus' poem, "The New Colossus," engraved on a plaque, I was reminded that I am the product of the "huddled masses yearning to breathe free." I am the great-granddaughter of immigrants and come from an Irish, Romanian Jewish, Danish, and English background. I am an American, but I cannot forget where my forefathers came from. We are a nation of immigrants, and we must not forget that at any time.
But I think we have.
Our totalitarian leader, Donald Trump, has signed an executive order banning people from seven Middle Eastern countries from entering. Green card holders are also affected despite having already undergone the immigration process before. Trump and the GOP claim the ban is for the good of America and making us safe, but if they wanted to keep us safe, they'd ban people from Saudi Arabia, since fifteen out of nineteen of the 9/11 hijackers were Saudi Arabian citizens. Saudi Arabia is not listed as a banned country, and that probably has something to do with the fact that Trump has business ties to the region.
So, now that we've established that the ban has nothing to do with safety, what is the ban all about? One word: hatred. The Trumpistas are too stupid to realize that the Syrian refugees are not the ones committing terrorist acts in the United States. Even if the Syrian refugees wanted to cause harm, they are too tired and downtrodden from, I don't know......FLEEING A WARZONE. They are more focused on their survival at the moment. They are willing to comply with us in order to gain entry. To supporters of the ban: these are not the trouble makers you're looking for. These are innocent women and children.
And before you say Obama did the same thing, let me clear it up for you: he did not. He did not issue a full travel ban, but signed a measure to stop giving out new visas to Iraqi refugees in 2011. At that time, we were at war with Iraq. We are not at war with Syria, so the two scenarios are not comparable.
Another piece of rhetoric I've seen floating around is the notion that the Left cares more about refugees than veterans. That is not true. The thing is that most vets do not face life and death situations now that they are back in the United States. They may be homeless or poor, but they do not have to worry about being blown up anymore. The fear of being blown up or tortured is a constant, stark reality for Syrian refugees. Their situation is so much more dire. Watch footage of Aleppo and see for yourself. I'm not knocking our troops! They go through a lot and deserve so much more, but nobody is trying to kill them while they are here. We can help both, though.
In conclusion, the ban is wrong, and we ought to all raise our voices against it. It flies completely in the face of what America stands for. If we impose this ban, we must also remove the phrase "land of the free" from our national anthem.
