Trump’s order on travel is a disgrace to all

President Donald Trump’s inhumane treatment of hundreds of ordinary people from Muslim-majority nations this weekend was an outrage. His draconian executive order indefinitely banned entry to America for Syrian refugees and suspended U.S. travel for those who hold American visas and, for a time, even those from Iran, Iraq, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria and Yemen who hold U.S. green cards.

Those orders did not extend to Muslim nations where Trump has substantial business holdings – Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Egypt.

An estimated 375 travelers were detained or prevented from boarding flights into the U.S. on Saturday; not one was a terrorist threat. They were scientists, medical students, children, engineers and interpreters who had risked their lives to help the U.S. military. A Sudanese graduate student at Stanford was handcuffed and detained at John F. Kennedy International Airport. Two Iranian-born Chicago suburbanites with green cards were held at O’Hare with their 18-month-old baby.

“No explanation, no justification,” a distraught Iraqi translator for the military told McClatchy’s Hannah Allam by phone after he, his wife and their two children – approved to live in Tennessee – were forced onto a plane back to Iraq.

Some members of the Border Patrol defied court orders to enforce Trump’s order, even turning away two members of Congress trying to see those detained. Law enforcement officers swear an oath to uphold the Constitution, not to any individual. Several federal judges issued stays against President Trump’s order, and those stays should have been obeyed. The agents’ union issued a statement of support and appreciation for President Trump’s order. Are they his personal militia?

Trump’s order does nothing to make America safer. The traumatized refugees who have been allowed into the U.S. – including thousands in our region – are overwhelmingly peaceful and grateful for asylum. The order has little or no relevance to past terrorist acts. The 9/11 attacks’ hijackers were from Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Egypt and Lebanon – which are exempt. The Boston Marathon bombers were from Chechnya, also exempt. One of the San Bernardino shooters was from Pakistan – also exempt.

As Republican U.S. Sens. John McCain and Lindsey Graham pointed out Sunday, the hostile order “may do more to help terrorist recruitment.” Trump, petty as ever, tweeted that they were “sadly weak on immigration.” It is Trump who has weakened our position, giving the Islamic State ample ammunition in its efforts to recruit jihadis by saying he would prioritize Christians in Muslim-dominated countries.

California Attorney General Xavier Becerra and UC Irvine School of Law Dean Erwin Chemerinsky noted the order was inept, violating federal laws against national origin quotas and appearing to violate the First Amendment clause banning the government from favoring one religion over others.

Sunday, Trump dug in on Twitter as his aides tried to minimize the damage by walking back some of the more blatantly illegal parts. By Monday, he was sending out pleas for money with which to confront the media, which he accused of trying to mislead the American public. Only one constituency applauded this disgraceful maneuver: the Breitbart bigots, who foolishly confuse strength with the infliction of humiliation on vulnerable people.

This story was originally published January 31, 2017 at 10:14 AM with the headline "Trump’s order on travel is a disgrace to all."