What this Weekend’s Protests Were About

The Trump presidency has not started slowly.  Trump has spent the last ten days signing executive order after executive order, fulfilling his campaign promises.  Within the first ten days of his campaign, there have been many large-scale protests.  This is a president who made campaign promises and kept them.  He has done this by using his power giving Executive Orders.  While this was undemocratic when President Obama did it, under President Trump I have yet to hear one Republican complain about it.

Let’s look at the immigration ban, or “Muslim ban” as the media is calling it.  The Trump administration has banned people from seven countries from entering the United States.  This ban has led to mass confusion and protests at airports and outside the White House and Capitol Building.  A judge has issued a stay on the Executive Order.  Some sources say that the stay was for the people who were in the air or arrived at the airport as the Executive order was given, and others say it is a blanket stay.  This Mother Jones Article has a copy of the actual stay.  Most articles are saying 109 people were held at the airports and, even though a Federal Judge stated they should have access to lawyers, they were not allowed legal counsel.

What makes this different from Obama’s 2011 ban on Iraqi immigrants?  The president has the right to allow travel bans from any country for any reason.  This would usually be security.  The president is also allowed to ban people from coming into the country who are seeking asylum.  In 2009 two terrorists were discovered in Kentucky who came in under the Iraqi refugee program.  These two men were apprehended and the government paused refugee requests from Iraq for six months to revamp their security protocol.

Republican House Member Justin Amash of Michigan explains on Facebook:

What he basically says is that it is not lawful to ban immigrants, it is lawful to ban tourists and refugees.  This is where President Trump’s Executive Order is overreaching the Constitution, whether you agree with it or not.

I am just wondering if the next four years is going to be nothing but a series of protests.

original image found here