Monday morning's news cycle in New Zealand was once again dominated by Trump. The gossip rags were filled with like headlines including statements like "Trump's ban on travellers from Muslim countries (NZH)," "divisive Trump Muslim ban (ZB)," "Trump's Muslim ban (Stuff)," and even "McCully fails to condemn Trump's travel ban from Muslim countries (ZB)." Why does media think our foreign minister needs to virtue signal on the immigration policies of an ally? Why is it considered a "failure" to not condemn the POTUS when given the chance? We suspect it is because our media has lost any sense of objectivity and balance.
Let's get past the hype, hate, and spin, to cover some of the facts:
- In 2011, Obama suspended visas from Iraq for 6 months because of terrorism concerns.
- The seven countries whose citizens have been banned are: Iran, Iraq, Libya, Somalia Sudan, Syria and Yemen. All these had been identified as sources of terror by the Obama administration.
- The visa measure only applies for 60 days and the suspension of the refugee program for 120 days.
- The ban is on the basis of citizenship, and does not target members of a religion or race, therefore it is neither a "Muslim ban" nor racist.
- Travel to 46 other Muslim-majority nations is unaffected.
- Only 109 persons were detained upon entry to the U.S., and 173 more were prevented from boarding planes.
- Press secretary Sean Spicer stated that front-line agencies were not warned in advance, because doing so would have posed a threat to national security as people could have flooded in before the measure took effect.
- There seems to have been some initial confusion about green card holders and those with dual-citizenship, but chief-of-staff Reince Priebus insisted those were not affected by the executive order.
While this measure is the fulfillment of a long-time campaign promise, whether President Trump's efforts to keep potential terrorists out of the USA will be successful remains to be seen. Canadian PM Justin Trudeau has already invited those blocked by Trump's immigration policies into Canada. In 2014, James O'Keefe demonstrated how easy it is for a would-be ISIS terrorist to enter America through the Canadian border.