Walk Down Memory Lane: Trump’s First Year As President, Part 1

Travel Ban
Within a week of his inauguration, Trump was already causing controversy by implementing a Muslim travel ban. The executive order banned the entry of people from seven predominately Muslim countries for 90 days, as well as halting all refugee admissions for 120 days and all Syrian refugee admissions indefinitely. Even Green Card holders that come from one of the seven banned countries were subjected to the same restrictions, even though they are legal U.S. residents.

Dozens of lawsuits were filed moments after the legislation passed. Many used the 1965 Immigration and Nationality Act as the basis for their case. The act states that no person could be “discriminated against in the issuance of an immigrant visa because of the person’s race, sex, and nationality, place of birth or place of residence.” Since Trump’s ban was specifically targeted at Muslim countries and even specifically excluded Syrian immigrants, it gave those arguing against the ban enough to challenge Trump in court and win.

On 3 February, a Seattle federal judge suspended the order nationwide. The Trump administration attempted to reinstate the ban at the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco, but was defeated. Unfortunately, these defeats did not deter Trump from ensuring the divisive law passed.

The travel ban resurfaced again in December with the Supreme Court clearing the way for President Trump to reinstate the order. Despite the efforts of the San Francisco court to block the travel ban, the Supreme Court granted Trump’s request to lift two injunctions imposed by lower courts.

The ban will remain in effect until the justices decide whether to revisit the issue. Until then, the ban applies to Chad, Iran, Libya, Somalia, Syria and Yemen, as well as North Korea and certain government officials from Venezuela.

With there being 22.5 million refugees seeking safety, a unified effort is required from the world to help save these innocent civilians. However, Trump’s extreme immigration policy suggests he has no desire to help. Given the current climate, this is a troubling move.

 

Airstrikes
Although Trump has been reluctant to help innocent civilians from the Middle East, he has shown no signs of restraint from attacking their homes. Within his first term, Trump has ordered two major airstrikes in 2017, one in Syria and another in Afghanistan; both of which had deadly consequences.

The Syrian bombing occurred in April in the densely populated city of Raqqa. At the time, Raqqa was under ISIS control, but resulted in losing control of the city in October 2017. In his pursuit to “bomb the s—t out of ISIS” Trump ordered a poorly planned airstrike which killed 42 innocent civilians and contributed very little to removing ISIS from power.

A few months later, Trump ordered another spontaneous airstrike on Afghanistan. With the Taliban making a resurgence, the U.S. government responded by bombing the northern city Kunduz, which has been overtaken by the Taliban twice in two years. Despite efforts to clear the area, 16 innocent civilians still died during the attack and the Taliban still have a stranglehold on the Northern Province.

According to the United States Air Force, American airstrikes have doubled since the Afghanistan mission in August. American aircrafts have dropped around 900 munitions in August and September of 2017, whereas in 2016, they only dropped 260 munitions. Trump’s willingness to use violence is causing many to worry that there may be more war and destruction to come.

 

The Great Wall of America
During his campaign for Presidency, one of Trump’s key policies was creating a wall across the Mexican border. His rationale for the 3,100 km construction piece was to prevent the “drugs and rapists” from entering the country. Many thought this was a far-fetched promise to combat immigration, and that if Trump were elected he would never follow through. In fact, the proposal regarding the Mexican border wall was removed from Trump’s website moments after being elected.

However, despite opposition from both Republicans and Democrats, Trump is still determined to build the wall. Within weeks of his Presidential reign, Trump signed an executive order requesting the Department of Homeland Security to “immediately plan, design and construct a physical wall along the southern border.” On October 20, the U.S. government began looking at various prototypes, many of which cost up to half a million dollars. Currently, eight prototypes stand in the middle of the desert in San Diego.

Another promise Trump made in regards to the wall was making the Mexican Government pay for the whole project. The wall is expected to cost up to $50 billion to build, and $150 billion to maintain each year. Unsurprisingly, Mexican President, Enrique Pena Nieto has stated that his country will not contribute a single dollar or peso to the border project.

With Trump persisting to go ahead with the wall and Peña Nieto refusing to pay for it’s construction, tensions have arisen between the two countries, especially in regards to trade. In response to Mexico’s refusal to pay for the wall up front, Trump attempted to impose a 20% tax on imports from Mexico in order to cover the cost of the wall. Trump has also threatened to pull America out of the NAFTA trade agreement after both Mexico and Canada disagreed with some of Trump’s amendments to the deal.

Trump’s reckless spending and inability to negotiate legitimate trade deals within his first year of presidency creates an unsettling precedent, which may have serious ramifications on America’s economy and their relations with other countries.

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