[potatosoup]

Trivia: the specific seven countries are ones deemed by DHS to be "high risk" in February 2016, during the Obama administration, so it's not an arbitrary pick by Trump [1]:

"Have you traveled to, or been present in, Iraq, Syria, Iran, Sudan, Libya, Somalia, or Yemen..."

[1] https://www.cbp.gov/travel/international-visitors/visa-waive...

[grzm]

so it's not arbitrary action by Trump

The choice of countries may not be arbitrary. The Executive Order is most definitely Trump's choice.

Edit: My parent has since changed the quoted section to "so it's not an arbitrary pick by Trump".

[geezerjay]

> The choice of countries may not be arbitrary. The Executive Order is most definitely Trump's choice.

The distance between declaring a whole nation to be "high risk" and refusing entry to those coming from those "high risk" nations is very slim.

It would be understandable if there was any backlash or public outcry against labeling whole nations and all people passing through them as being "high risk", but there was none.

As there was zero oucry, this sounds a whole lot more like partisan, kneejerk anti-Trump rants than anything else.

Perhaps this is only a wakeup call for americans to take a long hard look at their immigration and foreign relations policies, which have been put in place since the early 2000s. Trump hasn't revolutionized anything. If anything, he is only directing attention to what the US has been continuously doing since then.

[facetube]

It is arbitrary. He is engaging in collective punishment – holding those hostage who are lawful residents, including those who have already been thoroughly vetted over multiple years. This will result in loss of life, loss of income, and intangible suffering on the part of families and children. Some of those being blocked have specifically assisted the United States in its war on ISIS, and are now under threat specifically because of this.