How Trump's Ideas on
Muslim Immigration have been Borrowed from America's Past Posted on Tuesday the
15th of December 2015, by Joe A. Gilbertson, Guest writer
Imagine
living in a world where every word that came out of your mouth was dissected
and analyzed? Politicians, especially those running for president know what
they are getting themselves into. They signed up for it, but being on the
constant defense is even exhausting to watch.
Donald
Trump is the most talked about candidate. He has always been someone in the
public eye with strong opinions. Recently, his ideas about how to fight the war
of Islamic terrorism has caused him to be compared to Germany’s Adolf Hitler.
Headlines such as “Donald Trump Ditches Political Correctness, Slams Muslims”
and “Donald Trump’s Horrifying words about Muslims” have blanketed the
internet.
But,
what did he really say that caused him to be labeled as such a villain? Most of
these articles don’t have exact quotes from the republican candidate.
Here
are his actual quotes about this issue. NBC News Reporter: Should there be
a database to track the Muslims in this country?
Trump:
There should be a lot of systems beyond databases. So, there should be a lot of
systems and today you can do it. But, right now we have to have a border, we
have to have strength, we have to have a wall, and we cannot let what’s
happening to this country happen any longer.
NBC
News Reporter: What do you think the effect of that would be, how would it
work? Trump: It would stop people from coming in illegally.
NBC
News Reporter: Would they have to legally be in this database? Trump: They have
to be, they have to be, the key is people can come to this country but they
have to be here legally.
Where
in this exchange does Trump ever clearly advocate for a Muslim registry? It is
clear from above that Trump is referencing his ideas to keep out illegal
immigrants and that there is some major miscommunication between the reporter
and Trump.
Trump
backed this miscommunication up by tweeting “I didn’t suggest a database- a
reporter did. We must defeat Islamic terrorism & have surveillance,
including a watch list, to protect America.”
However,
fuel was added to fire when his campaign released this statement: “Donald J.
Trump is calling for a total and complete shutdown of Muslims entering the
United States until our country's representatives can figure out what is going
on."
Corey
Lewandrowski, Trump’s campaign manager, continued to defend the proposal by
saying it would apply to everybody, not only Muslims seeking immigration visas.
With the recent ISIS attacks, including the mass shooting two weeks ago in San
Bernardino, California by one shooter who was aligned with ISIS, the US public
is concerned about Islamic terrorism. It makes sense that Trump would issue a
statement stressing the Muslim segment versus others.
It’s
also important to consider that in laws outlined by Congress an immigration ban
is ultimately up to both the president and congress. This has happened previously
in The Whitehouse.
President
Jimmy Carter banned the immigration of Iranians in 1980 when America was
cutting ties from the Khomeinist regime in Iran. After the Pearl Harbor attack,
President Franklin Roosevelt suspended immigration for all Japanese, German,
and Italian citizens. In the 1950s, President Dwight Eisenhower launched
Operation Wetback, whereas over million illegal immigrants where deported by
force.
So,
Trump’s ideas are not new or blasphemous. They are borrowed from previous administrations
as a way to monitor potential threats on home soil. There is no easy way to
pin-point potential terrorists. Is protecting religious liberty as important as
protecting American lives?
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