The Daily Signal’s Genevieve Wood ventured to Dulles Airport to interview protesters, who are railing against President Donald J. Trump’s executive order on immigration, specifically the so-called Muslim ban on travel and visa applications. The president has stressed this is temporary. He’s also well within his constitutional authority to issue this order. Moreover, they’re nations that Obama included in his 2015 revision to the visa waiver program. This isn’t a ban either, though the Obama White House seems to have laid the groundwork for Trump’s executive order by initially selecting the nations of concern. Also, three of the seven nations in Trump's executive order are designated as state sponsors of terrorism.
Again, this isn’t a Muslim ban. People from Indonesia, the world’s most populous Muslim country, can still come here. The 1965 Hart-Celler Act does not apply because the Trump White House issued this order under a national security priority, not because he wanted to re-skew or reestablish immigration quotas from western European nations, which was the basis for the act.
Wood, who broadcasted on Facebook Live, interviewed several protesters, who were cordial—misguided—but no punches thrown. Yet, one protester towards the end of the broadcast said that the main difference between Obama and Trump is that the former didn’t ban people. Actually, he did. As Wood noted, the Obama administration stopped processing visa applications from Iraq in 2011 for six months after al-Qaeda operatives were found to have slipped through the vetting by applying as refugees and then being relocated to the U.S. a few were discovered in Bowling Green, Kentucky.
Interviewer: In 2011 President Obama banned people from Iraq—did that not concern you?
— The Daily Signal (@DailySignal) January 30, 2017
Protester: No because I loved President Obama. pic.twitter.com/q2ehPVUCwh
I don’t remember protesters going nuts over that moment in history. When Wood told the protester this fact, she asked her if it bothered her.
“No, I love president Obama. I wish he was still here,” replied the protester.
Well, that pretty much sums up everything. Also, would it surprise anyone that 14 years ago, Democrats wanted to halt issuing visas to some Middle Eastern countries? Yeah, that happened too.
Full broadcast here: