Trump's Big Mistake: Green Card Holders Have Rights

The world seldom responds well to unilateral, unthought-out actions, Gordian knot notwithstanding.  It should be no surprise, therefore, that the response to the White House ban on entry into the US from seven Near Eastern countries has raised a lot of challenge on several fronts.

Probably  the most obvious violation it represents is the sudden revocation of entry for green-card holders. For anyone not familiar with the green cards, these are a form of identification for permanent, lawful residents of the US.

Since I held a green card myself before I took citizenship, I can assure you that they are not dispensed out of coke machines where put in your money and out pops a card. I was married to an American citizen, mother of another, and born in England yet I was subjected to intrusive background checks and it was made to clear to me that I would not be granted a card unless I had no criminal background, would not be a public burden, and had no political subversion in my history. Phone calls were made to my references, court records were consulted, finances checked up on, and this was in the 1960s. It has only grown tighter since then.

In return for all this vetting, my green card came in the mail about six months after application. Along with the card came a series of rights and obligations. In return for obeying US laws, one of my rights was the full protection of all federal, state, and local laws. If anyone doubts this, go to the home page of the US Department of Citizenship and Immigration. The rights and responsibilities are spelled out right at the top of the page. Green card holders have the same rights and protection as citizens except they don't vote, run for office, work for the government, or receive government services unless authorized by congress.

Therefore, what the White House did was strip away the right to guaranteed due process, including entry and exit into the country, and protection of law for a whole class of green card holders. This has to have struck fear into the hearts of card holders of any nationality. It would have into mine. This has to be why the courts are restraining the executive order. On its face, the order is just plain illegal.

The other issue is the revocation of visas. There is no legal protection for those, as far as I can see. They were always subject to revocation at the will of the country. But even these are not dispensed out of coke machines. As subsequent investigation has shown, these tend to be issued to people with family in the US, legitimate educational and professional reasons to be here, and humanitarian actions such as protecting people who collaborated with the US. If the White House wants to revoke these, it can, but it will find itself dealing with the horrendous cases such as the baby that needs heart surgery. If the White House administration can live with this fallout, they are probably within their rights.

Bu then there is the matter of the particular nations included in the ban. There are many ways to look at the statistics, but since the administration is being xenophobic, I will be too. How many American lives have been lost in this country as the result of immigration from these seven countries? The answer is none. The largest loss of life in the US recently was  caused by citizens of Saudi Arabia and Egypt. Why aren't they on the banned list if security is the motive?  Could it be yet another conflict of interest for the president since he does business with them?

I leave this to more legal heads but want to recall that the other horrendous loss of life to domestic terrorism was in Oklahoma, at the hands of Timothy McVeigh. I was in Oklahoma City around that time, so had the personal horror of actually seeing what white terrorists are capable of inflicting on their own country. Its not just external terrorism we have to fear.

Despite being a US citizen, I still get agitated coming through customs and immigration at the airport. Obviously, I have not shaken the unease of the immigrant knowing that I am in the hands of a bureaucracy much more powerful than I. I can only imagine what those people stuck in the airports must have felt.