[fowlerpower]

This is absolutely nuts.

Green card holders (legal permanent residents of the United States) are being turned back from the US as soon as they get to the airport. They are being forced to file waivers which can be denied.

How can legal permanent residents be denied entry? I mean this has to be breaking So many laws, how can this be ok?

[refurb]

How can legal permanent residents be denied entry? I mean this has to be breaking So many laws, how can this be ok?

You have it wrong. The only people that can't be denied entry to the US are US citizens. When I had a Green Card it was made very clear to me that a green card does not guarantee entry to the US.

For example, if you leave the US (and have a green card) for more than 6 months the onus is on you to prove you haven't given up residency in the US.

[gdilla]

sure, but of all the people to blanketly keep out, the ones who where actually vetted, did their paperwork and followed the law seems counterproductive.

[smacktoward]

Laws do not enforce themselves. They only have power when there are people with authority willing to stand up and enforce them. Without that, they are just words on paper.

Right now all three branches of the Federal government are in the hands of the Republican Party. Trump has one branch; the other two have no interest in opposing him, so long as he lets them do what they want as well. So for the moment, at least, those laws that all three of them disagree with can be assumed to have gone by the boards.

[oblio]

The problem with this line of short term thinking is that it can backfire badly. Yes, they get 1 term or 2, but then the backlash can bury them for decades. Especially in the context of America's changing demographics.

[smacktoward]

It's not short term thinking at all. This is the GOP's big chance to roll back the modern American system, which was erected by liberals like Roosevelt and Johnson, and replace it with something more to their ideological liking. Doing so has been their #1 political objective since the 1930s.

Why on earth would they fail to seize such an opportunity? Especially when, as you note, changing demographics mean that another one is unlikely to ever come again?

[pavlov]

The judicial branch is not in Trump's pocket (at least yet), but it moves much more slowly than the two others.

[potatosoup]

Former green card holder here. A green card (or a visa) gives you a privilege to entry, not a right.