Disruption can be good, especially given the partisan congressional gridlock that has frustrated most voters. It can wake up a complacent bureaucracy from sluggish business as usual. But the weekend chaos flared by the president’s executive order blocking travel from seven majority-Muslim countries is not good. The confusion it wrought — among the administration’s own Cabinet directors and across major U.S. airports — is not good.
And for Hawaii, which takes particular pride in being shaped by immigrant families and offering welcome to all, it hit the very heart of our diverse state. More than any other state, our community is visibly, tangibly enriched by the “melting pot” of cultures and people who live here, a majority of whom are descendents of immigrants who helped create the Hawaii of today.
On Wednesday, a rally in front of Honolulu’s federal court included an important statement co-signed by 24 peace and civil rights organizations, including the Japanese American Citizens League, the Muslim Association of Hawaii and the ACLU.
“We are a state and a nation of immigrants that should honor our native peoples as well as those who seek refuge here,” it said in part.
President Donald Trump’s Friday executive order blocks citizens from seven predominantly Muslim countries — Iran, Iraq, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria and Yemen — from entering the U.S. for at least 90 days. It also bans for 120 days refugees from any country, and bars refugees from Syria indefinitely. All this, Trump said, to review entry policies so to better protect the U.S. against terrorist attacks.
The desire for security is understandable. But the haphazardness of the order and its implementation brought mass confusion — at airports among passengers, airlines and U.S. border officials, and disturbingly, among the president’s own top men who should’ve been in on the order, but weren’t.
John F. Kelly, the secretary of homeland security, said he did not see the final version of the order before it was executed; Defense Secretary James Mattis also was caught off guard. Nearly 1,000 State Department staffers have signed a dissent memo on the visa ban, saying it would “alienate allies” and “hurt America economically.” Corporations are rethinking how their workers conduct business beyond U.S. borders.
In the weekend confusion, hundreds holding visas and green cards were detained for long periods as officials scrambled to understand the scope of the new rules. Protests swelled in airports, from Boston and New York, to Seattle and Los Angeles, to here at Honolulu International Airport.
It wasn’t until Wednesday that White House Counsel Don McGahn issued “authoritative guidance” to clarify key parts of the controversial order, to say green-card holders “no longer need a waiver (to the travel ban) because if they are a legal permanent resident they won’t need it anymore.”
“It’s working out very nicely,” Trump had told reporters Saturday. “You see it at the airports. You see it all over. It’s working out very nicely and we’re going to have a very, very strict ban, and we’re going to have extreme vetting, which we should have had in this country for many years.”
Nearly half the country seems to agree, according to a Reuters/Ipsos poll, taken this week. Of 1,201 respondents, 49 percent “strongly” or “somewhat” agreed with the ban; 41 percent “strongly” or “somewhat” disagreed; 10 percent were undecided. While that might surprise residents in Democrat-dominant Hawaii, what’s not surprising was that 53 percent of Democrats strongly disagreed, while 51 percent of Republicans strongly agreed with the ban.
Here, University of Hawaii President David Lassner and campus chancellors on Monday issued a laudable statement in support of global diversity, saying: “The fundamental values of our nation and our state have long supported the welcoming of others to our shores and embracing them into our communities. Diverse knowledge, ideas, cultures and perspectives enrich us immensely as we work toward a better future for all. We will support our professional associations and colleagues who are working to promote more effective solutions to keeping our nation safe.”
The travel ban’s stated intent is for the security of all Americans, but what should not be forgotten is America’s place as the world’s shining beacon of hope and liberty.
The undue chaos of this past weekend has ratcheted concerns of uncertainty over immigration policies. It also reinforces concerns that governing by chaos will be acceptable, by both the president and roughly half of the country. Welcome to today’s United States of America.