By Nishi Naik
Staff Writer
The world faced chaos once again when President Trump recently imposed the travel ban in seven of Muslim countries. The executive order banned immigrants from the Muslim-majority countries of Iraq, Syria, Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan and Yemen, with those countries adding up to about 130 million people.
This executive order resulted in millions of people across the world protesting and fighting against racism. This order changed the whole world’s perspective of what America originally meant for immigrants.
Several million people came out and voiced their opinions and beliefs. People of different backgrounds, cultures and faiths united to defend the land of immigrants. Universities across the country also responded to encourage the president to remove the travel ban.
Washington and Minnesota were the among the first two states to oppose the ban, in addition to several thousands protesters everyday. Rallies were held almost daily in opposition to President Trump’s executive order.
And on Feb. 3 2017, they got their wish. The ban was suspended by a three judge appeal panel, according to NPR.
“The panel declined the lower court’s order suspending the executive ban against entry of refugees and travelers from the seven above listed countries,” NPR reported.
However, imagine if this ban had been reinstated. The short term and long term effects would have been drastic.
From ongoing protests to people permanently leaving their friends and family behind, the ban affected not just the FDU community, but millions of people across the globe. For international students at FDU, it was a period of stress, anger and solitude. Had the ban been reinstated, some of these students would have jeopardized their academics and many other opportunities of studying in this country.
“The travel ban is discriminatory and it violated both federal rules and the US Constitution,” Noah Purcell, the solicitor general of Washington, said.
“[Purcell] told the court that the judiciary’s role is to step in and check the abuses of the executive branch,” according to NPR.
Of course, the announcement of revoking the ban came as a blessing for many people. But President Trump has implied that he would go for an appeal, including in one Tweet where he said “the security of our nation is at stake.”
“Trump also spoke briefly with reporters outside his press secretary’s office after the ruling was announced,” NPR said, “and called the decision political and predicted the administration would ultimately win.
Despite the tension faced by the panel and the people of this nation, the ban has been successfully revoked. This positive result of the federal court not only resulted in families and friends reuniting with each other, but also sparked a renewed belief in the judiciary system.
Though this ban has been addressed, the real issue of globalization and neoliberalism still remains.
