The Supreme Court decision upholding the Trump administration’s infamous “Muslim ban” will have consequences far beyond its restriction on visas for nationals from the affected countries.
Of the greatest concern is the validation it has given to the president’s virulent anti-Muslim, anti-immigrant rhetoric. It was Trump’s inflammatory language against Muslims that caused lower courts to strike down his first iteration of the ban. While the administration claimed to hold no anti-Muslim animus, the courts noted that during his campaign for the White House, Trump had said “I think Islam hates us...we can’t allow people coming into this country who have hatred of the United States.” And that he had called for “a total and complete shutdown of Muslims entering the US.”
In an effort to deflect criticism and save face, the administration attempted a second and third version of the ban, adding Venezuela and North Korea to the list of banned countries and repackaging the effort as a national security “travel ban”. It was this third version that was upheld by the Supreme Court.
In upholding Trump’s ban, the court recognised the president’s absolute right to “suspend entry of aliens into the US”, regardless of whether or not his intention was to discriminate against Muslims. It is frightening to think of the consequences of handing such power to any president – especially this one.
The decision will also have a direct and hurtful impact on hundreds of thousands of recent immigrant Syrian, Yemeni, and Somali Americans in addition to others from the affected countries. They will no longer be able to have their families visit them. And if they are still Green Card holders, they will now be at risk of being denied re-entry if they leave the US to visit their families abroad.
The ban and the decision to uphold it also make a mockery of national security concerns.
This Supreme Court decision coming on the heels of the Trump administration’s horrific behaviour in separating refugee and asylum-seeking families and putting them in long-term detention camps without recourse to judicial review will only serve to embolden the White House to commit new outrages in the name of national security.
Trump fuelled his campaign with hostility towards selected groups of foreigners – Muslims, Mexicans and other “people of colour”. They were, he has said, an “infestation” that was threatening our culture and our society. The Supreme Court has now validated his behaviour and from the supportive comments of some of his key supporters we can only expect more, not less, of this dangerous appeal to xenophobia.
This may be what the president wants, but it’s not the country we want to leave to future generations.
A final thought: It is clear that Trump’s rhetoric and actions are political in intent. He is firing up his supporters in the hopes that they will insure continued Republican control of Congress. A GOP victory, he feels, will protect him from accountability and possible impeachment.
This is reason enough to consider that the 2018 mid-terms may be the most important election in the recent history of our country. They present is a challenge for both parties. Republicans who initially rejected Trump and saw him as a danger to their party and the country, became cowards in the face of “Trump’s base”. They decided to swallow their pride and their principles and tagged along for the ride. As a result, they have become complicit in Trump’s corrupting abuse of presidential power.
Republicans can no longer be allowed to turn a blind eye to this president’s degrading of American political culture.
Democrats too must face down this challenge. They can no longer play “business as usual” fielding comfortable candidates who hold on to the power and privilege of high office and once there do little or nothing to challenge the status quo.