Muslim ban disregards constitutional rights

America, land of the free and the home of the brave.

A beacon on a hill, the shining example of acceptance and opportunity for all. Except Muslims.

More specifically the Muslim population of the seven countries affected by President Donald Trump’s recent executive order suspending all immigration and refugees from Iran, Iraq, Sudan, Somalia, Yemen, Syria, and Libya.

This ban also bars permanent US residents or green card holders from reentering the country.

This caused massive outbreaks of confusion and protest at our nation’s airports as people in transit were detained on their arrival home.

All because of where they were from.

This executive order is unconstitutional and un-American through and through.

The basis for suspending immigration and refugees is unwarranted and based in xenophobia and islamophobia rather than logic and actual concern for public safety as Trump claims.

There have been zero instances of refugees killing Americans. In fact, there have been zero instances of any foreign national from any of these countries killing Americans in an act of terror since 9/11.

Not only does the ban violate our long held tradition of being a place to escape religious persecution, but it violates the principle of the separation of church and state.

Although the president argues the order is not a Muslim ban, it bans only people from Muslim majority countries, making it an effective Muslim ban. The ban also cites that religious minorities are to be given priority refugee status. 

But if the only countries banned are Muslim majority, then the religious minorities will be mostly Christian faiths.

That is not to say that Christians in the Middle East have not been persecuted, but when the US government decides to take Christian refugees over Muslim ones, they are making a clear statement of condoning one religion and condemning another. 

The Trump administration also talks very tough about our NAFTA and NATO partners paying their fair share.

But in terms of humanitarianism, it is the US that is lagging behind their global allies.

Germany has opened its arms to 300,000 refugees and Turkey accepted 2.7 million Syrians fleeing the tragic civil war, according to The Guardian.

We have accepted a measly 12,000. 

The US is doing nothing in the worst humanitarian crisis of our times and most tragically rejecting the same principals that we were founded on as a nation. 

If the constitution ever really was a living document, President Trump has surely killed it.