During his presidential campaign, Donald Trump often proposed banning Muslims from entering the United States. On Friday, he took a big step towards that goal with a series of executive actions that took a series of steps to eliminate or severely cut down immigration from predominantly-Muslim countries.Â
The actions, which can be read in full here, set out several major steps.
- Syrian refugees are indefinitely barred from entering the U.S.
- Immigrants from Iraq, Syria, Iran, Sudan, Libya, Somalia, and Yemen are barred for 90 days.
- Christians and members of other minority religions from majority-Muslim nations will be given priority over Muslims.Â
- The amount of refugees allowed in the U.S. this fiscal year is cut from over 100,000 to 50,000.
- No refugees at all will be allowed into the U.S. for 120 days.
During the signing ceremony, Trump said, "I'm establishing new vetting measures to keep radical Islamic terrorists out of the United States of America. We only want to admit those into our country who will support our country and love deeply our people."
Almost immediately, criticism came in from politicians, human rights groups, and more.Â
Many people noted that despite the president's frequent invocation of the 9/11 attacks, the countries that actually produced the attackers—Saudi Arabia, Egypt, the United Arab Emirates, and Lebanon—did not appear on Trump's list of banned nations.
A possibly related fact? Trump has business interests in some of those countries, including Saudi Arabia, home to 15 of the 19 9/11 hijackers.
