On January 27th, President Donald Trump signed an executive order restricting immigration from seven Muslim countries, suspending all refugee admission for 120 days, and completely denying all Syrian refugees. This order is controversial and Americans are asking whether it is justified.
For starters, Trump’s main responsibility is to protect the rights of citizens of the United States of America, and protecting the lives of people in this country from the threat of terrorism is reasonable - in fact, encouraged. Every citizen in the United States should feel safe and secure in the comfort of their homes. But did Trump approach this dilemma in a responsible, non-problematic manner? The fact of the matter is, although the threat of terrorism is real, the threat to the United States from Muslim terrorists has been exaggerated. Compiled data by Princeton University, FBI reports show only a small percentage of terrorist attacks carried out on U.S. soil between 1980 and 2005 were perpetrated by Muslims. This exaggeration and constant ridicule in news media has influenced the general society of America and increased xenophobia.
Many Hillgrove students have opinions about this controversial idea.
Jillian Scelsi (11th grade) addresses Trump’s saying, “[I mean] I understand where he’s coming from with it - I wouldn’t say it’s necessarily a good thing but at the same time is not a bad thing because having too many people from one culture coming into a new culture it takes away from what the culture has grown up to be. Like Germany doesn’t have its old culture because of all the refugees coming in.”
Other students, like Jalen Jenkins (11th grade), strongly opposed this ban. He comments, “We’re all immigrants, unless you're 100% Native blood [which no one is at this point] then everyone here is an immigrant.”
He also doesn’t believe it will achieve its intended purpose.
“I think it will make tensions worse. You’re trying to keep out terrorists, specifically Islamic terrorists, but it makes it worse by saying ‘Nope, you can even come into the country anymore’. Ok we’ve had terrible terrorist attacks, but let's talk about people shooting up clubs, [let’s talk about people who shot up the churches, the schools, [let's talk about] those incidents that were done by white individuals, where’s the White Ban?”
Some Students, especially Muslim students, are anxious because of the ban.
Hikima Lukomwa (11th grade) voices, “When I heard about it it kinda made me angry, the thing is he didn’t necessarily say it's a ‘Muslim Ban’, but it is affecting a lot of Muslim people, especially Muslim women wearing hijabs. It’s starting to affect them because people are like, ‘Oh, you’re a Muslim, you need to leave!’”
Madeeha Siddiqui (11th grade) states how this affected her by saying,“Well, my family is from Pakistan and we’re actually afraid to go out of the country because what if he adds it on to his list ?”
Even though Trump’s ban is being challenged in court, the issue of immigration will continue to be debated.
Picture credits: PBS