http://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-trump-immigration-greencard-idUSKBN15C0KX

This is insane. How can Trump ban green card holders via executive action? If you have a green card it's likely you spent thousands of dollars and many years in the US to get there (as I did) and now just because you're from a high risk country that goes to waste? Even if you have been an exemplary person your entire time here?

Also reading about students who went home for the break and can't return using their student visas.

If this is the direction that the US wants to go in, fine, I suppose that's America's right. But shouldn't something like this go through congress? How is Trump able to do this via executive action? Where is the separation of powers?

Banning Green cards for the same 7 countries yeah?

Students are guests of the nation, They should be treated better atleast.

McLewis wrote:Pakistan and Afghanistan, where the San Bernadino and Orlando night shooters have their roots from, aren't on this list of 7 nations named in the ban. These are 2 countries that literally produced people who murdered Americans. Conspicuous that they are not on this list.

Saudi Arabia, home to the majority of the 9/11 attackers, is also conspicuously not on this list. Why is that? It couldn't possibly be cause Trump has business ties with this country that he does not want to upset or could it be about the political and strategic alliance that we have with them in that region, could it?

Not a single perpetrator of mass murder on American citizens came from any of the countries on this list. They are being scape-goated by the Trump administration to appease his base and keep his insane campaign promise.

I repeat. I fear my own compatriots more than I fear those who may come here from abroad. They are responsible for significantly more bloodshed.

This is sad and quite frankly heartbreaking.

Kyrgyzstan (Boston bombers) is not banned, although I doubt there's a Trump golf course there

I'm interested to find out what Sepi thinks of his iranian compatriots and relatives having no place in the US. In fact can he even re-enter anymore? (I seem to recall he's also canadian but can't remember if he gave up his iranian citizenship).

What a shit show. Don't think Bangladesh will be banned but I'm not ruling anything out. Thats a lot of money down the drain for me then.

The most amazing thing is Trump told everyone this is exactly what he was going to do.

People who cared more about Hillary's Wallstreet ties and emails can now sleep well at night. Elections have consequences. Welcome to the New America

http://thehill.com/blogs/blog-briefing-room/news/316714-federal-judge-blocks-trump-immigration-ban-nationwide

I would better understand (hell, I might have even supported it) had it been aimed at the right countries and had it not been so draconian. That was far too much to ask for though.

We really should just give the Statue of Liberty back to France. We have become unworthy of it.

'If you have no sympathy for human pain, the name of human you cannot retain'

He cited 9/11 as part of the reason for the Muslim ban yet 15 of the hijackers were from Saudi Arabia (where he has business interests that people thought would represent a conflict of interest if he became president and, wow, they do!) with 2 from the UAE and the other two from Egypt and Lebanon.


But none of those countries were on the list...

And, as a "Christian nation", Trump believes only Christians should be allowed in because, apparently, Muslims were allowed in at the expense of Christians when, last year, roughly the same amount of each religious group arrived on US soil as refugees.

All of this is beside the point that refugees haven't been committing attacks on US soil. There are, what, 15,000 Syrian refugees in all of the United States? Today, there are 1.5million in Lebanon. One point five *bleep* million. Let me put that into perspective: Lebanon is 10 square kilometers. That's a third of the size of Massachusetts where there are currently 150 Syrian refugees.

The way to deter the bogeyman and easy go-to word that is terrorism has never been marginalizing and alienating people coming from war-torn countries. It's to accept them into the cultural melting pot that America was supposed to be from its inception. The world, and America as its self-appointed policeman, has a responsibility to provide asylum for these people. "Give me your tired, your poor, Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, The wretched refuse of your teeming shore. Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me, I lift my lamp beside the golden door!"

But I'm talking facts and the Donald has his own alternative ones. These words mean little in the face of that.

MJ wrote:
And, as a "Christian nation", Trump believes only Christians should be allowed in because, apparently, Muslims were allowed in at the expense of Christians when, last year, roughly the same amount of each religious group arrived on US soil as Syrian refugees... In a country where 87% are Muslim and 10% are Christian.

You are conflating different things here. Roughly the same amount of each religious group arrived in the US but NOT from Syria. Syrian refugees are a totally different story. Here:


"The United States has accepted 10,801 Syrian refugees, of whom 56 are Christian. Not 56 percent; 56 total, out of 10,801. That is to say, one-half of 1 percent. The BBC says that 10 percent of all Syrians are Christian, which would mean 2.2 million Christians. . . . Experts say [one] reason for the lack of Christians in the makeup of the refugees is the makeup of the camps. Christians in the main United Nations refugee camp in Jordan are subject to persecution, they say, and so flee the camps, meaning they are not included in the refugees referred to the U.S. by the U.N. “The Christians don’t reside in those camps because it is too dangerous,” [Nina Shea, director of the Hudson Institute’s Center for Religious Freedom] said. “They are preyed upon by other residents from the Sunni community, and there is infiltration by ISIS and criminal gangs.” “They are raped, abducted into slavery and they are abducted for ransom. It is extremely dangerous; there is not a single Christian in the Jordanian camps for Syrian refugees,” Shea said.

Read more at: http://www.nationalreview.com/article/444373/donald-trump-refugees-critics-wrong

So basically the Muslims hate Christians so much the refugee camps aren't even safe for them. Sucks for your narrative I guess, but that's facts for ya. They do that sometimes.

Betty La Fea wrote:The most amazing thing is Trump told everyone this is exactly what he was going to do.

People who cared more about Hillary's Wallstreet ties and emails can now sleep well at night. Elections have consequences. Welcome to the New America

You elected Trump IMO by going for the most hated candidate in history (bar Trump) & a proven fraud/lier.

They hate her in the mid-west & they really don't care if refugees come or not (Mid-western Trump voters), they are concerned with paying their bills & they are struggling to have a decent life!

If you want to shame people to electing Trump, you are learning the wrong lessons & you will probably get Trump elected in 2020 with this mentality!

Iranians are actually sick and tired of Islam. For starters, they are Persians and Islam was imposed on them forcefully and that unmatch is still seen there. While the ruling elite use Islam as a tool to forcefully control the population, the people are progressive and many are atheists. If there is one country which is very progressive despite having a horrible government it is Iran. I don't get USAs problem with them.

How convenient of Trump to ignore actual terror factories in the world. Where is soudi? Pakistan?

DuringTheWar wrote:
So basically the Muslims hate Christians so much the refugee camps aren't even safe for them. Sucks for your narrative I guess, but that's facts for ya. They do that sometimes.

You've cited a right-wing Fox News mouthpiece with a documented history of accepting funding from groups and then regurgitating their rhetoric that makes up facts about Syrian Muslims and their attitudes towards Syrian Christians. Congrats. Funny that the UN's report on women refugees in Jordan mentioned nothing of Muslims targeting and abusing Christians in those camps.

I can't speak for everyday life in a Jordanian camp as well as Hudson and their dodgy credentials but I can speak for Lebanese life and, as we have the same people, Syrian Muslims and Christians alike, I can tell you that that's garbage.

I live in Lebanon. I have friends who are Syrian refugees. With 1.5 million of them in a country of 4 million Lebanese, it's pretty hard not to come into contact with them (not that I'd try to, as I'm not a prejudiced piece of shi* like a lot of my fellow US and, admittedly Lebanese, citizens ) and I can assure you from experience in a country that has actually taken in a sizable amount of refugees, and not just 12k, that Syrian Muslim refugees do not beat, rape or abduct Christian refugees.

A great number of them are simply working class people who can afford apartments and to send their kids to school and just want somewhere safe and quiet to care for their families until they can go home. If they can go home. An even greater number of them are impoverished and take to begging in the street to feed themselves. But Muslims are not targeting and beating and raping Christians like that right-wing nutjob think tank would have you believe.

All of this is besides the point that it shouldn't f***** matter whether the refugees are Muslim or Christian. They're refugees seeking asylum and should be treated as such with their religion disregarded.

I guess these facts might be too alternative for you.

footyfan01 wrote:

Betty La Fea wrote:The most amazing thing is Trump told everyone this is exactly what he was going to do.

People who cared more about Hillary's Wallstreet ties and emails can now sleep well at night. Elections have consequences. Welcome to the New America

You elected Trump IMO by going for the most hated candidate in history (bar Trump) & a proven fraud/lier.

They hate her in the mid-west & they really don't care if refugees come or not (Mid-western Trump voters), they are concerned with paying their bills & they are struggling to have a decent life!

If you want to shame people to electing Trump, you are learning the wrong lessons & you will probably get Trump elected in 2020 with this mentality!

No doubt, I hope the midwest enjoys whatever Trump gives them.

He said he will make America great again, and I hope they are ready for what that REALLY means.

Very difficult to see the US as it is right now.

Executive ordering unconstitutional demands. What a disgrace.

CBarca wrote:Very difficult to see the US as it is right now.

Executive ordering unconstitutional demands. What a disgrace.

I wonder was this how people felt in 1860? I mean, they didnt have the level of media we had now back then, but still we are as polarized as I have ever seen us.

Most of these things he's ordering will get shot down in court...  it's mostly politics.  The unfortunate part is that some people will suffer between the time the orders are made and the court systems do their thing.

You can't do things against the US constitution.  It's not possible.

Foreign policy is the big concern, not domestic policy.  Trump has a lot more true power there.  The only way to stop that part is if Congress got its act together and that's unlikely since it's controlled by the Republicans.

Just be sure to read the actual transcripts about everything.  Mainstream media is so anti-Trump that you can't trust them... just like you can't trust Trump.  Yes, we have a lot more information today... but the amount of misinformation is staggering.

Getting any truths in today's world is almost impossible. You just have to pick your poison and try to see which outlet is less disgustingly biased. But either way you're screwed.

This shite is affecting other students as well, The % companies offering jobs to foreign students is going down. I have friends in the Ivy leagues who aren't being able to find jobs at the moment. Wow

Elect a racist, and the country gets more racist. What a shocker.

MJ wrote:

DuringTheWar wrote:
So basically the Muslims hate Christians so much the refugee camps aren't even safe for them. Sucks for your narrative I guess, but that's facts for ya. They do that sometimes.

You've cited a right-wing Fox News mouthpiece with a documented history of accepting funding from groups and then regurgitating their rhetoric that makes up facts about Syrian Muslims and their attitudes towards Syrian Christians. Congrats. Funny that the UN's report on women refugees in Jordan mentioned nothing of Muslims targeting and abusing Christians in those camps.

I checked the original reporting and they cite several sources working at or near these places. I'm supposed to assume they are lying because you hate right wingers and FOX news (who this has nothing to do with)?

That's very persuasive, not. Attacking sources is a defense mechanism when people can't (or can't be bothered) to produce a persuasive argument.

I don't want to fall prey to confirmation bias but it isn't as if this has no precedents:

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/muslim-migrants-accused-of-throwing-christians-overboard-during-row-on-boat-from-libya-to-italy-10184025.html

(I glad to inform everyone this reporting has nothing to do with Rupert Murdoch or Roger Ailes)

And we do still have the question of why hardly any Christian Syrians are seeking refuge. (And no, it isn't because ISIS love Christians)

MJ wrote:
All of this is besides the point that it shouldn't f***** matter whether the refugees are Muslim or Christian. They're refugees seeking asylum and should be treated as such with their religion disregarded.

I guess these facts might be too alternative for you.

I think it's perfectly morally reasonable to want more than 0.5% (or whatever it was exactly) of the refugees you take from a country, to be Christian, when that is a serious underrepresentation of the actual Syrian Christian population.

Just recently Trump universalised the holocaust in a statement by excluding any mention of Jews, this upset a lot of people, rightly. So if there is some injustice affecting a particular group disproportionately, don't come with the 'everyone's the same' crap.

Nishankly wrote:This shite is affecting other students as well, The % companies offering jobs to foreign students is going down. I have friends in the Ivy leagues who aren't being able to find jobs at the moment. Wow

The economy being shite probably is why they cant find jobs. Really is the main part of it.

Nishankly wrote:This shite is affecting other students as well, The % companies offering jobs to foreign students is going down. I have friends in the Ivy leagues who aren't being able to find jobs at the moment. Wow

That was happening anyways, of upwards of 250k applicants only about 90k H1B visas are given every year, so there's a real chance that even if you find a job you won't be able to keep it - and that's a risk a lot of companies don't want to take. I think Trump promised to update the H1B program as well which would make companies hesitant to hire until they know what the changes are.

DuringTheWar wrote:
I think it's perfectly morally reasonable to want more than 0.5% (or whatever it was exactly) of the refugees you take from a country, to be Christian, when that is a serious underrepresentation of the actual Syrian Christian population.

Maybe take more than 5 refugees in before crying about things like "underrepresentation" of some groups

VivaStPauli wrote:Elect a racist, and the country gets more racist. What a shocker.

Oh, these liberal tears, they're so salty!