Baker, colleges oppose Trump immigration order
President Donald Trump's executive order on immigration and refugees swiftly met opposition in Massachusetts, where over the weekend a federal court issued a temporary restraining order, thousands protested in Copley Square, and politicians and university heads spoke out against the directive temporarily barring immigrants from seven Muslim-majority countries.
Trump on Friday signed an order halting all travelers from Iraq, Syria, Iran, Sudan, Somalia, Libya and Yemen who are not U.S. citizens from entering the country for 90 days, a period of time the Department of Homeland Security says "will allow for proper review and establishment of standards to prevent terrorist or criminal infiltration by foreign nationals." Refugee admissions were suspended for 120 days, then capped at 50,000 for the 2017 fiscal year.
Reports of travelers from those countries detained upon their arrival in America and of others turned away before boarding flights prompted a series of protests at airports throughout the country, including Boston Logan.
Two UMass Dartmouth professors, both legal permanent residents returning from an academic conference in Paris, were among those detained Saturday, the school said in a statement. Immigration lawyers and the American Civil Liberties Union of Massachusetts filed suit on behalf of the professors, Mazdak Pourabdollah Tootkaboni and Arghavan Louhghalam, who are both Muslim Iranian nationals.
Early Sunday morning, U.S. District Court Judge Allison Burroughs and Magistrate Judge Judith Dein issued a seven-day restraining order prohibiting the detention or removal of refugee applicants, holders of valid visas, lawful permanent residents and others from Iraq, Syria, Iran, Sudan, Libya, Somalia and Yemen who would be otherwise legally authorized to enter the United States.
"Now that our colleagues are safe, we want to be clear that we believe the executive order does nothing to make our country safer and represents a shameful ignorance of and indifference to the values that have traditionally made America a beacon of liberty and hope," UMass Dartmouth interim Chancellor Peyton Helm and provost Mohammad Karim said in a statement Sunday. "This executive order is, furthermore, shockingly oblivious to the fundamental tenets of intellectual and academic freedom, which are enriched - not endangered - by international collaboration."
University of Massachusetts President Martin Meehan said in a statement that UMass was "deeply disheartened by this alarming action that has violated the rights of members of the UMass community and many others," and that university officials were working to connect with international students, faculty and staff affected by the order.
Boston College officials, in a letter to their students, advised citizens of the seven countries to postpone travel outside the United States, "as their re-entry cannot be guaranteed," and said the order "undermines a key strength of our higher education system." At Boston University, a student group that calls itself the BU Anti-Trump Coalition, said it expects thousands at a 3 p.m. Monday rally protesting Trump's immigration policies.
Also Monday, the Massachusetts Communities Action Network, Cosecha and other groups planned to gather at the Cathedral Church of Saint Paul near Boston Common to discuss how Trump's orders affect the immigrant community, Muslims and people of color. The groups say they are organizing "sanctuary churches" and "sanctuary synagogues" to protect residents.
Attorney General Maura Healey joined 15 other attorneys general in applauding the stays issued by multiple federal courts and vowing to "use all of the tools of our offices to fight this unconstitutional order and preserve our nation's national security and core values."
"We are confident that the Executive Order will ultimately be struck down by the courts," the attorneys general said. "In the meantime, we are committed to working to ensure that as few people as possible suffer from the chaotic situation that it has created."
After the ruling in Boston and similar cases in New York and elsewhere, federal officials said the U.S. Customs and Border Protection "immediately began taking steps to comply" with the court orders, while the departments of Homeland Security, Justice, and State were continuing to work to execute Trump's executive order.
The Department of Homeland Security said less than 1 percent of the more than 325,000 international air travelers who arrive daily in the U.S. were "inconvenienced while enhanced security measures were implemented."
Homeland Security Secretary John Kelly said he had deemed the entry of lawful permanent residents "to be in the national interest."
"Accordingly, absent the receipt of significant derogatory information indicating a serious threat to public safety and welfare, lawful permanent resident status will be a dispositive factor in our case-by-case determinations," Kelly said in a statement.
Trump defended the policies and the way they were rolled out, writing on Twitter Monday morning: "There is nothing nice about searching for terrorists before they can enter our country. This was a big part of my campaign. Study the world!"
"If the ban were announced with a one week notice, the 'bad' would rush into our country during that week. A lot of bad 'dudes' out there!" he wrote in a second post.
The move has been criticized by Republican Gov. Charlie Baker and Democrats holding municipal, state and federal offices.
After initially saying through an aide that he opposes religious tests for refugees and believes focusing on countries' predominant religions "will not make the U.S. any safer," Gov. Charlie Baker on Sunday issued a statement saying the Trump administration's decision puts at risk relationships that education, health care, business and public institutions in Massachusetts have with partners around the world. Baker said he and his administration were discussing implications of the order with the academic, medical and research communities, and with representatives of potentially affected residents.
"Thankfully, the federal courts will have an opportunity to straighten this out and it is my hope they do so, and do so quickly to clarify the status of those affected so that people who have done nothing but follow the rules can rest assured that they will be able to go on with their lives," Baker said.
Boston Mayor Martin Walsh, who joined protests both Saturday at Logan Airport and in Copley Square Sunday, called the order "morally wrong" and a "reckless policy that is rooted in fear, not substance, and further divides us as a nation and a world."
In a CNN interview Monday morning, U.S. Rep. Seth Moulton, a Marine veteran, said that terror groups like the Islamic State would use the immigration order as a recruiting measure and to "incite attacks against Americans."
"The second thing is it's going to make it much harder for us to work with our allies overseas, these critical Muslims who are so important in the fight against terror," Moulton said. "Our translators, our sources, our intelligence, these people I worked with every single day on the ground in Iraq and we would be completely lost without them. We made a promise to them. We made a promise that if we put our lives in their hands, they could put their lives in our hands, and now we're abandoning them."
U.S. Rep. Richard Neal said in a Sunday statement that he would "support legislation in Congress this week to immediately overturn this misguided policy."
"Turning our back on refugees fleeing conflict and persecution will only damage our reputation around the globe," Neal said. "It will energize those bad actors who seek to do us harm. And judging by the chaos and confusion at our nation's airports, the controversial executive order was not thoroughly vetted with the appropriate federal authorities."
In a statement on Saturday, Trump said the seven countries named in his order are "the same countries previously identified by the Obama administration as sources of terror" and said there were more than 40 countries that are majority Muslim that were not affected by the order.
"America has always been the land of the free and home of the brave. We will keep it free and keep it safe, as the media knows, but refuses to say," Trump said. "My policy is similar to what President Obama did in 2011 when he banned visas for refugees from Iraq for six months."
Trump added, "We will again be issuing visas to all countries once we are sure we have reviewed and implemented the most secure policies over the next 90 days. I have tremendous feeling for the people involved in this horrific humanitarian crisis in Syria. My first priority will always be to protect and serve our country, but as President I will find ways to help all those who are suffering."
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