By Matthew Vadum ——Bio and Archives--March 16, 2017
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Whenever the President finds that the entry of any aliens or of any class of aliens into the United States would be detrimental to the interests of the United States, he may ... suspend the entry of all aliens or any class of aliens as immigrants or nonimmigrants, or impose on the entry of aliens any restrictions he may deem to be appropriate.Watson did what other judges did in the lawsuits over EO 13769, substituting his opinions for those of the current Commander-in-Chief, and weighing trivia and irrelevancies that aren't supposed to be considered in this kind of case. Instead of granting due deference to the president's conduct of national security policy and limiting himself to what lawyers call the four corners of the document at hand, the judge improperly noted statements made by the president and his adviser Rudy Giuliani to the prejudice of the Trump administration. He regurgitated the Left's tedious argument that the new executive order was a so-called Muslim ban in disguise. Watson found that "a reasonable, objective observer -- enlightened by the specific historical context, contemporaneous public statements, and specific sequence of events leading to its issuance -- would conclude that the Executive Order was issued with a purpose to disfavor a particular religion." The judge wrote:
When considered alongside the constitutional injuries and harms discussed above, and the questionable evidence supporting the Government's national security motivations, the balance of equities and public interests justify granting the Plaintiffs' TRO. See Aziz, 2017 WL 580855, at * 10. Nationwide relief is appropriate in light of the likelihood of success on the Establishment Clause claim.In a constitutional republic, judges aren't supposed to arrogate to themselves powers belonging to other state actors. Doing so violates the separation of powers doctrine. But Watson recognizes no boundaries to his authority. He ruled in effect that the president, despite being elected by the American people to safeguard the nation, can be second-guessed and is not competent to decide who gets in or doesn't get in to the country. The matter, he held, is best decided by an unaccountable lifetime appointee who wears a black robe. In other words, elections don't have consequences. Besides, EO 13780, which replaced Trump's previous order, is different but not dramatically different from actions President Obama took while in office. Obama's Department of State carried out a similar six-month emergency processing pause regarding Iraqis in 2011 to allow flawed screening procedures to be reevaluated. The move, which was more limited in scope than Trump's actions, took place after two al-Qaeda-Iraq terrorists were discovered in 2009 posing as refugees in Bowling Green, Ky. Screening by the FBI, as well as the Departments of Homeland Security and Defense, failed to flag the applications of Waad Ramadan Alwan and Mohanad Shareef Hammadi. Recalling his previous efforts to kill U.S. soldiers in Iraq, Alwan quipped that "lunch and dinner would be an American." The two men pled guilty to terrorism charges in 2013. Hammadi received a sentence of life imprisonment, while Alwan was sentenced to 40 years in prison to be followed by supervised release for the rest of his life. President Obama also signed the Terrorist Prevention Act into law on Dec. 18, 2015, which singled out all seven nations identified in President Trump's earlier directive as heightened security risks. Even legendary weakling President Carter temporarily blocked Iranian nationals from entering the country around the time the Islamic Republic of Iran held Americans hostage from 1979 to early 1981. To give credit where it is due, Carter made it clear he understood federal law when he declared in April 1980 that the U.S. government:
Will invalidate all visas issued to Iranian citizens for future entry into the United States, effective today. We will not reissue visas, nor will we issue new visas, except for compelling and proven humanitarian reasons or where the national interest of our own country requires. This directive will be interpreted very strictly.That's the way a president is supposed to behave.
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Matthew Vadum, matthewvadum.blogspot.com, is an investigative reporter.
His new book Subversion Inc. can be bought at Amazon.com (US), Amazon.ca (Canada)
Visit the Subversion Inc. Facebook page. Follow me on Twitter.