David Cooper: Immigration ban no fix

Recently President Trump issued an executive order than bans immigrants from seven Muslim-majority countries from entering the United States. What has been the impact of this order?

One immediate effect was that an Iraqi who had risked his life by working as a translator for the U.S. government was placed in custody while entering the U.S. This is shameful, but perhaps it was an unfortunate side-effect of a policy designed to make all Americans safer. But does Trump’s order make us safer?

For example, would his order have prevented the 9/11 attackers from entering the U.S.? No, because 15 of the 19 attackers were Saudis, and Saudis are not banned under Trump’s order.

Banning Muslims from certain countries does not create safety; it’s just a naive way to label and exclude people without bothering to get to know them. Our immigration system is flawed in many ways, but we cannot improve it by applying knee-jerk fixes like this one.

This story was originally published January 31, 2017 at 6:55 PM with the headline "David Cooper: Immigration ban no fix."