For all its posturing and 9/11 citations, the Trump administration chooses to ignore an indisputable fact: no person accepted into the United States as a refugee has been involved in a major fatal terrorist attack since the Refugee Act of 1980. That Act set up the criteria and procedures we use to today to admit people fleeing their countries.
The Cato Institute released a report detailing these unfortunate truths this year, and even researched attacks before 1980. There were three attacks, all by Cuban refugees, and three people total were killed. Not a single person of Middle Eastern origin or from a Muslim majority population.
The fact of the matter is that besides 9/11, most of the deadly terrorist attacks on US soil have been by US citizens or permanent residents. The shooters from the San Bernardino attack would not have been affected by the travel ban, for example. The husband was an American citizen, and his wife was legally in the country on a K-1 fiancée visa.
What about the New York/New Jersey bomber? He was from Afghanistan, right? Yes, Ahmad Khan Rahimi was born in Afghanistan and came to the United States in 1995, and become a citizen in 2011. And on top of that, Afghanistan is not on the list of countries banned by President Trump.
Another example is the Pulse nightclub shooter. Another US citizen with family origins from Afghanistan. President Trump’s travel would not apply to him or his wife, who came to this country from the West Bank.
These are just a handful of attacks that would not be stopped by the travel ban, and the report by the Cato Institute has many more.
So when President Trump tries to sell the line that the travel ban is about national security and stopping terrorist attacks, he’s trying to sell you a load of alternative truth. To truly stop terrorist attacks in America, we have to look much closer to home.
Do you feel safer, America?
Watch why Trump’s travel ban could be dangerous for the country here:
Featured image via screenshot from CNN video
