Recall that President Donald Trump has signed a revised Executive Order that imposes a short moratorium on entry into the US from six (down from seven under his original EO) Middle Eastern countries. Hawaii Attorney General Doug Chin has filed suit in Hawaii’s Federal District Court to try to block this new EO. The EO, Chin claims, will damage 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.
This is disingenuous. The folks whose entry is being temporarily blocked represent a vanishingly small per centage of Hawaii’s tourist population. The foolishness of “damage” to educational institutions I’ve already addressed regarding a Washington Federal judge’s ruling on the earlier EO. Chin’s beef about Hawaii citizens is nothing more than a cynically dragged red herring: the EO doesn’t even address American citizens, much less those who also are citizens of Hawaii. This EO impacts only some refugees and potential immigrants.
About those refugees and potential immigrants: Chin made this charge in his filing, and he actually kept a straight face as he filed it:
This new executive order is nothing more than Muslim Ban 2.0. Under the pretense of national security, it still targets immigrants and refugees.
Of course, the EO cannot be a ban; it’s a temporary moratorium with an expiration deadline. More than that, it cannot be a ban of Muslims; it impacts only about 10% of the world’s Muslims.
Of course, it does target potential immigrants and refugees—those are folks outside our nation, and they are not citizens of our nation. As such, these people have no right to enter our nation without our prior permission, nor do we have an obligation to let them in. That’s what nation means, that’s what borders are for.
Nor do we know who these folks are, really—which is why the EO imposes the moratorium: to give State and DHS time to improve our vetting procedures, another requirement of the EO, and a requirement carefully ignored by Chin.
Of course Chin knows all of this. The utter disingenuousness of this Democrat’s charge ought to get his filing dismissed on its face.