When Donald Trump, the 45th President of the United States, took office in January 2017 one of the first things he did was create a Travel Ban that blocked hundreds of travelers from the countries: Chad, Iran, Libya, Somalia, Syria, and Yemen to enter the United States. This is one of the few victories that Trump has managed during his eleven-month office run. For some, it is great news but to others, it is not.
Now, on December 2017, the Travel Ban was reinstated by the United States Supreme Court and this time adding two more countries to the list, Venezuela, and North Korea. According to the Supreme Court: “The high court’s action means that the ban will now go fully into effect for people from Chad, Iran, Libya, Somalia, Syria, and Yemen seeking to enter the United States. The Republican president has said the travel ban is needed to protect the United States from terrorism by Islamic militants.”
Basic math, how many terrorist attacks have happened in the United States after 9/11? Sadly, quite a lot. How many of these were orchestrated by Muslims? Not as many as you would think. So how exactly is this Travel Ban going to help keep the United States safe? The majority of the most devastating terrorist attacks that have happened on US soil have been caused by white American citizens. After 9/11 the worst terrorist attack was and they cannot be blocked out of the country for countless reasons that the President and the Supreme Court will gladly give.
However, terrorist attacks by extremists that come from these countries have occurred in Europe and other countries. With that being said, I can understand where the fear and worry come from, but the actions of a few do not determine an entire country. If that were the case, there would be an electric fence around the United States right now and they would not be allowed to leave the country!
While I understand that every leader has a right to control who enters their country because they need to think about the safety of their people, there also needs to be a sense of logic. If you read every single statistic, guns owned by American citizens have killed more people than Muslims in the past decade. The United States does not need a Travel Ban of this magnitude, it needs a form of gun control or some other measure that everyone benefits from. However, if a Travel Ban is the best solution, the least they could do is to block the countries that the terrorists that have attacked the United States come from. The countries that are now blocked by the Travel Ban, have not orchestrated an attack on United States of America’s soil. Most of these countries are blocked for political reasons, like Venezuela, Somalia, and North Korea. Those who are still allowed inside is mostly due to the business transactions that they currently have going on with the United States. This whole issue is very complex and there is far more to it than what we see on the news and read in the newspapers.
Sources: CNN, Wikipedia, and Maps of the World