OPINION:
Attorneys for the state of Hawaii filed a lawsuit this week against President Donald Trump over his new travel restrictions on six terror hot spot nations — Syria, Iran, Somalia, Sudan, Libya and Yemen.
“This new executive order is nothing more than Muslim Ban 2.0,” said Doug Chin, Hawaii’s attorney general, in a statement explaining the pending suit. “Under the pretense of national security, it still targets immigrants and refugees. It leaves the door open for even further restrictions.”
You know, it dawns that not too long ago, a statement like that would’ve been ripped in the press, shred for its sheer lunacy. Border control is a “pretense” of national security?
Worse yet: Border control “targets immigrants and refugees?” Exactly whom would Mr. Chin prefer border policy target — lawful citizens?
Imagine the bumper stickers making the wave of America’s highways on that score: “Americans, go home.”
But this whole notion the left is trying to sell of border control being tantamount to racism or religious discrimination is nothing but political theater.
Trump signed a temporary ban on foreign nationals from six nations known as fostering grounds for terror from entering America for 90 days. He also put a hold on U.S. acceptance of any refugees for 120 days.
Why?
National security. The fact the six targeted nations happen to be home to mostly Muslim populations is incidental to the order — but not to the cause of terror. Let’s be straight here. We’re talking about Islamic-based terror as the fierce threat to Western societies — not Christian-based terror, or Buddhist-based terror, or terror stemming from any other religion. So Trump’s order speaks to the realities of the threat, which happens to be, once again, tied to Islam.
Hawaii, no friend of the Trump administration, glosses over that — just like all the leftists who came before and protested the White House’s first travel ban.
“The new executive order is resulting in the establishment of religion in the state of Hawaii contrary to its state constitution; it is inflicting immediate damage to Hawaii’s economy, educational institutions, and tourism industry; and it is subjecting a portion of the state’s citizens to second-class treatment and discrimination, while denying all Hawaii residents the benefits of an inclusive and pluralistic society,” the court filings read, in part.
It’s not really clear how Trump’s closing of borders to potential terrorists for a period of 90 days leads to the “establishment of religion” in Hawaii. But so goes the logic of the left.
Heavy on the partisanship, light on the facts. And logic.
And more: “The executive order means that thousands of individuals across the United States and in Hawaii who have immediate family members living in the affected countries will now be unable to receive visits from those persons or to be reunited wth them in the United States.”
Sigh. It’s deja vu all over again. The left, emboldened by the shuttering of Trump’s first border restrictions by a federal judge, is now using essentially the same arguments to fight the new and revised version. “Muslim Ban 2.0?” More like Attack All-Things-Trump, 2.0.
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