Hair Furor has banned immigration from seven Muslim countries. (excluded are places where he has business ties, but I’m sure that’s completely innocent, right?) It took a court order to allow legal resident aliens who were returning from overseas, and being held at US airports, to continue their travels home. Unfortunately, that order only affects those who were in transit at the time, but not any still outside the USA. They are stuck away from home and family until the ACLU wins a complete victory and gets the ban declared (obviously) unconstitutional.
In the meantime, here’s the poem “The New Colossus”, with an edit for the Trump era.
The New Colossus
Not like the brazen giant of Greek fame,
With conquering limbs astride from land to land;
Here at our sea-washed, sunset gates shall stand
A mighty woman with a torch, whose flame
Is the imprisoned lightning, and her name
Mother of Exiles. From her beacon-hand
Glows world-wide welcome; her mild eyes command
The air-bridged harbor that twin cities frame.
“Keep ancient lands, your storied pomp!” cries she
With silent lips. “Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these*, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,
I lift my lamp beside the golden door!”
(*Applies to white Christians from western Europe only)
Emma Lazarus (November 2, 1883)
We hear echos of the cries from the refugee ship St. Louis, May 1939.
It’s also a shame that our Congressman, Devin Nunes, is in Trump’s pocket on this issue. Here’s his statement on the executive order (one of many orders that suddenly don’t seem to be an issue for those on the right, as they were for the previous eight years. Odd that, yes?).
House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence Chairman Devin Nunes released the following statement today on the Trump Administration’s executive order on refugees:
“Based on my studies of this issue during numerous trips abroad related to intelligence matters, I’ve stated repeatedly that refugee flows from certain war-torn regions pose a serious national security threat to the United States. In light of attempts by jihadist groups to infiltrate fighters into refugee flows to the West, along with Europe’s tragic experience coping with this problem, the Trump Administration’s executive order on refugees is a common-sense security measure to prevent terror attacks on the homeland. While accommodations should be made for green card holders and those who’ve assisted the U.S. armed forces, this is a useful temporary measure on seven nations of concern until we can verify who is entering the United States.”
I wonder what Anne Franck would think of this “temporary measure”?
Image and original poem from the National Park Service’s page on the Statue of Liberty.
Alternating Currents 