On Friday, President Donald Trump signed an executive order suspending refugee admissions for 120 days, placing an indefinite ban on immigrants from Syria and a 90-day ban on people from Iraq, Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan and Yemen (Salt Lake Tribune).
We’re going to talk about this on Wednesday’s Access Utah.
According to the Deseret News, Utah Republican Party Chairman James Evans emphasized Monday that the order comes as no surprise, is not permanent and is supported by 57 percent of Americans, according to a Rasmussen Reports poll. Mr. Evans also says that instead of an emotional gut reaction to the order, Americans should be discussing the reasons the order is needed in the first place.
Also according to the Deseret News, Catholic Community Services in Salt Lake City had resettlement for as many as 40 refugees in the pipeline and Aden Batar, Catholic Community Services’ director of immigration and refugee resettlement, says that job offers arranged for those refugees will be taken back, payments on their housing will be lost and family members awaiting them in Utah will be left in limbo. Batar goes on to say that closing the country's door to refugees is a mistake, and that "They are not the enemy. The refugees themselves have been victimized by terrorist groups around the world, and if we don't let them in, people are going to die every day."
And University of Utah history professor W. Paul Reeve’s recent Op Ed piece in the Deseret
News is headlined “Trump’s Muslim ban looks like Mormon ban.”
