COLUMN: Trump’s immigration ban is about protecting his business interests
President Donald Trump has signed an executive order banning immigration visas and refugees from entering the U.S. from seven predominantly Muslim countries. The anti-immigration action is to stop the flow of people from countries that have a history of terrorism. The anger and disgust towards his actions is understandable, and all Americans cannot forget that this is done for protection, but not for the protection of America citizens.
This travel ban has been done for no reason other than to satisfy president Trump’s political agenda. But it goes further than politics.
It looks as though the Jan. 27 executive action was signed to protect Trump’s business holdings in several Middle Eastern countries. This ban should never have been implemented, because it goes against what America is, and it targets innocent people.
President Trump’s ban shuts out people from Syria, Iran, Libya, Somalia, Yemen, Iraq and Sudan — even though it has been almost two-decades since someone from one of those countries has been tied to a terrorist attack in the U.S.
It is even more shocking to see the ban omits Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Lebanon, United Arab Emirates, Russia, Afghanistan and Pakistan.
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Call it a Muslim ban, travel ban or a 90-day “extreme vetting” period. It’s all the same message to the international community — America does not want you here because you scare us.
We are a nation of immigrants.
The 19 men who carried out the attacks on Sept. 11, 2001, were from Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Lebanon and the UAE. Omar Mateen, the Orlando nightclub shooter, was from Afghanistan. Tashfeen Malik, one of the San Bernardino shooters, was born in Pakistan and lived in Saudi Arabia.
NPR reported the outgoing Obama administration urged for stronger screenings for people from Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Pakistan and Lebanon — not the ones Trump’s executive order targets. If the goal was to protect America, why would these countries be omitted?
The answer is to protect Trump’s business interests.
Saudi Arabia, the UAE and Egypt all hold Trump business interests. Bloomberg Business reported the United Arab Emirates has two Trump golf courses and luxury villas under development. Trump’s FEC filings show that he has two businesses registered in Egypt — Trump Marks Egypt and Trump Marks Egypt LLC. The Washington Post revealed during the Republican primaries that Trump registered eight companies in Saudi Arabia.
The Wall Street Journal reported that Trump also has hotels in Turkey. Despite the Obama administration accused Turkey of supplying resources to ISIS and other radical Islamic groups, Turkey is also omitted from the travel ban.
Trump’s travel ban does not include Russia, even though the Boston Marathon Bombers, the Tsarnaev brothers, were born in Russia’s southern Caucasus region. In addition, Russia’s meddling in the general elections last year, complete with hacking into Democratic National Convention and Hillary Clinton campaign chair John Podesta’s emails, was a mission to create a misinformation campaign against the Clinton camp. These have all been acknowledged as fact by the FBI, NSA, CIA and members of Congress as being done at the behest of Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Trump might simply be omitting another county with a history of terrorism. If he wants to lift economic sanctions on Russia, he could be turning a blind eye to those that helped elect him.
These glaring problems with Trump’s immigration ban raises too many concerns and many more questions. This is not a coincidence. He targets innocent people — while protecting his businesses — and himself. The U.S. Constitution provides treason, high crimes and misdemeanors as grounds for impeachment.
Would protecting the president’s businesses, not the American public, be a high crime or misdemeanor?
Other presidents have been impeached for less.
