SHIFTING SANDS: THE IMMIGRATION ORDER IS MOOT
Overlooked in the continuing saga of our Present-dent’s messed-up executive order banning immigration from selected Muslim-majority countries: One of his key rationales for that order would seems to have lapsed into extinction, and yet no new rationale has replaced it.
Before a series of federal courts intervened and the case was kicked on up to the U.S. Supreme Court, the executive order indefinitely barred Syrian refugees from entering the U.S., suspended all refugee admissions for 120 days and blocked citizens of seven Muslim-majority countries, refugees or otherwise, from entering the U.S. for 90 days.
When he issued the original order days into his new job, Commander-in-Chief Orange Julius argued that the new administration needed time — 90 days or so — to review the effectiveness of existing immigration screening processes. The Supreme Court’s conservative majority recently allowed parts of the order to proceed while reserving judgment on the rest.
Let's hold up our fingers and count. Gee! The administration has held court for more than five months now, way past the 90 days it claimed it would require. If we pretend it's actually working to review screening procedures and that it needs more time, it hasn't said so. Nor has it proposed or implemented any significant changes to screening methods, because that would end the need for the order and also upset its real purpose.
It's conservative bias notwithstanding, the Supreme Court therefore should have punted on this case because the order arguably is moot based on the 90-day rationale -- not to mention the present-dent's comments about keeping Muslims from immigrating to the U.S. for any reason, patently a violation of the Constitution.
Now, obviously, this administration is incompetent but probably never really intended to carry out that ever-so important review, because that's not what the executive order really was all about. After all, it did not bother to get a full briefing from the Homeland Security, which manages those screenings. The screenings often take years to process individual immigrants and refugees. And apparently the administration will take years to come up with another sensible rationale for why it needed to screw up the immigration process.
Facts. Who needs 'em? The White House shot first and asked no questions later. Tweets aplenty, of course.
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