Yesterday (January 27), President Donald Trump signed an executive order banning immigration from seven countries, all of which are predominantly Muslim. The countries in question are Iraq, Syria, Iran, Sudan, Libya, Somalia and Yemen. During the signing, President Trump proclaimed, "I am establishing new vetting measures to keep radical Islamic terrorists out of the United States of America."
However, over the past four decades, there have been no fatal attacks on American soil that were orchestrated from immigrants from any of those seven banned countries. Additionally, according to a report from the Cato Institute, no Americans have been killed in the past 15 years by Muslim Americans with family backgrounds in any of those countries. And it has been noted that zero of the 19 hijackers on 9/11 were from any of those seven countries. The report from the Cato Institute concluded that Trump's ban "will have virtually no effect on improving U.S. national security."
Incidentally, the same report demonstrates that approximately 3,000 Americans have been killed by citizens from Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Egypt, and Turkey. The majority of those victims died during the 9/11 attacks.
Those four countries have something pretty glaring in common – they are all locations where President Trump has close business ties.
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In Saudi Arabia, Trump has eight companies registered that are connected to hotel interests. The president's name is currently licensed to two luxury buildings in Instanbul, Turkey, and he is reportedly linked to two companies in Egypt. As for the United Arab Emirates, Trump has a management deal for a luxury golf club in Dubai.
The potential conflict of interest that has been wrapped up with Trump's immigration ban has not gone unnoticed. In additional to the constitutional concerns that Trump's executive order has raised, the topic of his businesses could raise legal concerns as well. Norman Eisen, a former ethics adviser to President Obama, explains, "I don't believe that our Constitution allows the president to order State Department and other U.S. government employees to discriminate between otherwise identical people, favoring those from countries he likes because they give him unconstitutional foreign emoluments, and punishing those from other countries that do not pay such personal and illegal tribute to him.... This is the corrupt misconduct of a medieval potentate, not an American president."
Related: As Refugees Are Turned Away, Holocaust Experts Note History Repeating Itself
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