What a disheartening affair. The worst part is that it is all based on nonsense. The executive order on immigration itself is not a serious attempt to improve security, but is just political theater. Kellyanne Conway’s tweet, “Promises made, promises kept,” tells us all we need to know about this action. This administration is willing to inflict real pain on innocent, powerless people to please its supporters.
It’s especially sad that the people who support this action understand so little about it.
This action won’t make any noticeable difference to our security. We are less safe today than we were before this executive order was issued, but the impact on security is tiny and we’ll never be able to measure it. That makes it perfect for the administration. They can tout it as a get-tough measure which sounds manly and bold, even though it is useless, and no one will ever be able to prove whether it kept us safe or not.
Americans generally are poor at assessing risk, which means that we are generally poor at identifying our actual problems. This is not helpful when it is time to solve problems, but for a number of reasons – mostly bad – we are especially inept at understanding the risk of terrorism.
It is no secret that an American is more likely to die in a fall in a bathtub than in a terror attack. There are dozens of mundane, everyday occurrences that kill more people in the United States each year than terrorism. Yet many Americans believe that terrorism seriously threatens the continued existence of the United States. (http://www.economist.com/…/21706250-people-are-surprisingly…)
Terrorism is a form of psychological warfare that is intended to have effects that are disproportionate to the lethality of the attacks. It is not sarcasm to say, “the terrorists win,” when we overreact to terrorism by abandoning our values and demeaning ourselves. That overreaction is the goal of terrorism.
While “extreme vetting” sounds reasonable, our vetting of refugee applicants is already extreme. Applicants for refugee entry into the United States undergo a two-year process that includes initial screening by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, which weeds out 99 percent of the applicants. The remaining one percent is then interviewed multiple times by US intelligence and security agencies, including the Department of Homeland Security. Refugee applicants undergo extensive background checks and their names, biographic information and fingerprints are run through federal terrorism and criminal databases. Syrian refugees in particular must clear one additional hurdle. Their documents are placed under extra scrutiny and cross-referenced with classified and unclassified information.(https://obamawhitehouse.archives.gov/…/infographic-screenin…)
Immigration to the United States for non-refugees is not much easier. Immigration visas (the first step in the multi-year process of becoming a legal resident) are generally issued for the following reasons: the reunification of families, admitting immigrants with skills that are valuable to the U.S. economy, and promoting diversity. To obtain an employment-related visa an applicant must have a job arranged in the United States. Most of the qualifying professions for permanent immigration require high levels of education and professional experience, such as scientists, professors, and multinational executives. For a family-reunification visa the applicant must have a close relative already resident in the United States. Obtaining a visa, if you are eligible, takes a year or more and can cost as much as $2,000. The process includes at least one interview, a thorough physical, and a criminal record check.
While our current system is hardly foolproof, it is not a swinging door that foreign terrorist groups can easily exploit. It is already difficult to immigrate to the United States, which is one reason terrorist groups have not succeeded in infiltrating operatives into the US. It is not clear that making the process harder will have any impact at all.
But, of course, issuing a blanket ban on immigration from Muslim-majority countries – even if only temporary – perfectly supports the narrative of ISIS and other groups that the United States is conducting a war on Islam. If the administration’s goal was to improve security, they could have implemented security improvements without any public announcement at all. This highly politicized, highly publicized executive order is a gift to ISIS.
To defeat terrorism, we need to be strong and stay united. Overreacting in fear, abandoning our values, scapegoating our neighbors, and sowing discord among our citizens is the entire point of terrorism. We can be better than this.
January 29, 2017
