A legal, political, & humanitarian issue

ALEGAL battle is underway over United States President Donald Trump’s ban on the entry of citizens of seven mainly Muslim countries. After he issued his executive order last January 27, US District Judge James Robart of Seattle, Washington State, issued an order lifting the ban, questioning its constitutionality. The new administration’s Department of Justice announced it would file an appeal with the Ninth Circuit of the US Court of Appeals. President Trump himself twitted: “The opinion of the so-called judge which essentially takes law-enforcement away from our country is ridiculous. And will be overturned!”

While this battle on legal and constitutional issues proceeds in US courts, the nation’s corporate leaders warned of the economic risks of Trump’s immigration policies. Apple, Amazon, Expedia, and other high-tech firms prepared legal action against the ban. From Silicon Valley to Seattle, tech firms which rely heavily on high-level talent from India, East Asia, and elsewhere in the world assailed Trump’s immigration ban. More than half of US start-ups that are now estimated at worth over a billion dollars, according to one think tank, were founded by immigrants, including the chief executive of Microsoft, a co-founder of Google, and the executive chairman of Twitter.

America political leaders have also begun to weigh in on Trump’s immigration policies, including members of his own Republican Party. Over 20 Republican members of Congress have spoken out against the executive order. Sen. Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, top Republican in the Senate, said the US should not implement a religious test – referring to the ban on the seven mainly Muslim countries. Sen. John McCain of Arizona said he fears the executive order will become a “self-inflicted wound in the fight against terrorism.”

Around the world, Trump’s immigration ban has impacted directly on the seven countries it named – Iraq, Syria, Sudan, Iran, Somalia, Libya, and Yemen. At the end of the 90-day temporary ban, a much stricter vetting process would be installed. There were fears that more countries would be added to the seven, moving the US Department of Homeland Security to deny reports of an additional list of nine countries, one of which allegedly was “Southern Philippines.”

We don’t expect an immigration ban on the Philippines, but once the much stricter vetting process is in place, hundreds of thousands of Filipinos without proper documentation may be affected. President Duterte said that if this should come to pass, these so-called TNT – for “tago

nang tago” – Filipinos in the US better come home as he won’t be able to help them.

For now, the immigration issue is in the US courts, with the whole world following developments. It is going to have economic repercussions as many US companies -- and even sports groups -- rely heavily on foreign talent. It has deep political implications, for it is bound to be an issue in the next American congressional, senatorial, and local elections three years hence.

And it will affect many Filipinos. not just those with TNTs now in the US but also those who look to the leadership of the US in helping refugees, having begun as – and continued, through many times of trouble in the world, to be – a haven for persecuted refugees.