Week one of Trump’s America has been a nightmare. It’s hard to believe that it’s only been a week, but it has, and the concept of 4 years seems impossible. To be completely honest, after 8 years of doing the bare minimum I wasn’t sure Congress even knew how to work properly. But they quickly learned how and have done everything in their power to ruin-I mean, change- the world as we know it. The office of the President has a lot of power, and Trump is set on using all of it. Those who doubted that Trump would do anything he said during his campaign have been proven wrong as his plans for America come to fruition. From affecting reproductive health care across the globe by implementing a global gag rule to starting plans for the wall he’d been rallying for, Trump’s America will only be defeated if we continue to fight.
Last Friday, on Holocaust Remembrance Day, Trump placed an executive order banning immigrants and refugees from seven Muslim countries: Libya, Sudan, Yemen, Somalia, Iraq, Iran, and Syria (a new development going around is that the countries were apparently chosen by the Obama administration, however it was not for this same purpose nor is it in any way similar. The link for more information can be found here). Coincidently, it does not contain any countries Trump himself has business obligations in. The American Civil Liberties Union immediately sued Trump for the executive order and Judge Ann M. Donnelly issued a stay for the executive order, thus putting it on temporary hold, but not overturning the unconstitutional order. Even though the order was meant to ban only undocumented immigrants and refugees, United States dual citizens from any of these countries are also at risk of being removed from the country should they travel abroad and seek to return. Similarly, immigrants who had already obtained green cards were also detained if they were from any of the listed countries. JFK International Airport stood in quiet chaos as government officials did not know how to handle the executive order that was hastily applied last Friday without any instructions for implementation. Families were confused as family members didn’t arrive to greet them at the scheduled time and then sat in worry until some were eventually released.
But people have not taken such injustices lying down. Large scale protests blocking major international airports that detain immigrants and refugees are common. People are calling senators and representatives daily in order to get them to speak out against the Muslim ban. There has been a surge of donations to organizations supporting immigrants, both legally and socially. It’s a trying time that has a terrifying historical precedence what with the Holocaust, Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882, Japanese internment and much more in this country and around the globe. But we know more about injustice and the abuse of power than we did in the past and I trust that many Americans will not allow such heinous acts to occur again. However, many more fights will probably happen before true justice is reached. So we will continue to march and call and donate and hope that freedom, justice and liberty for all will ever be a reality.
