I disagree with Trump’s travel ban, but not for the reasons you may think…

I’m going to be brutally honest! The argument that the United States holds a moral obligation to take in as many refugees as possible is kind of lost on me. I believe it is a protest that’s lost on most Americans. The average hard-working American, in their day to day life, is not concerned with the fight for the rights of refugees or people stuck at airports. The average American, if they are being honest, is concerned about feeling safe! We care about not having a mass shooting at the mall our teenager just went to with her friends. We care that there’s not an explosion at the sporting event we are attending with our family. Americans care about national security.

I read President Trumps executive order on travel restrictions in its entirety. Here are the two main points everyone is in a fit about:

• 90 day ban on all immigration from selected countries

“…to ensure that adequate standards are established to prevent infiltration by foreign terrorists or criminals, pursuant to section 212 of the INA, 8 U.S.C. 1182, I hereby proclaim that the immigrant and nonimmigrant entry into the United States of aliens from countries referred to in section 217(a)(12) of the INA, 8 U.S.C. 1187(a)(12), would be detrimental to the interests of the United States, and I hereby suspend entry into the United States, as immigrants and nonimmigrants, of such persons for 90 days from the date of this order…”

• 120 day ban on refugees from selected countries while a new vetting process is reviewed and implemented

“…(a) The Secretary of State shall suspend the U.S. Refugee Admissions Program (USRAP) for 120 days. During the 120-day period, the Secretary of State, in conjunction with the Secretary of Homeland Security and in consultation with the Director of National Intelligence, shall review the USRAP application and adjudication process to determine what additional procedures should be taken to ensure that those approved for refugee admission do not pose a threat to the security and welfare of the United States…”

My hope is that this executive order will somehow kick start a national conversation about immigration reform and how vital it is to our national security. A conversation that is 40 years overdue in this country.

But the execution was all wrong.

The outrage is growing. In fact, the outrage to the outrage is growing. And while I agree with supporters of Trump that the order, in and of itself, is not as extreme as the reaction to it has been. May I also propose that the reaction to it would not be so extreme if the President had not repeatedly proclaimed during the campaign, “I, Donald J. Trump, am calling for a total and complete shutdown of Muslims entering the United States...” People heard that as hyperbole. Then when the executive order actually came down, the collective thinking was, “Oh shit, he was serious!”

Words matter.

One issue I have with the order has to do with intentions. The President’s intentions to be precise. I understand that the administration wants to say that this is about the security of our nation for the american people and not just keeping a campaign promise, but if this were truly the case, then why wasn’t the Secretary of Defense, Director of Intelligence, or Department of Homeland Security consulted? DHS stated that they never even met with the President prior to the order being signed. Was there no value to be gained in hearing the suggestions of the senior staff at the Department of Homeland Security? These were his people. Michael Flynn, the President’s own National Security Advisor, stated that he had not spoken to the President on the matter when the order was signed.

Meetings with your staff matter!

-Side Note-

Why were these 7 countries selected for travel restriction? They were picked as “hotspots for terrorist training” for the same reason that the Obama administration picked them: Because the U.S. has no business interests with these countries. Saudi Arabia, on the other hand, has a multitude of business ties with the United States, and are not on the list. On 9/11, America suffered its worst terror attack in U.S. history by Saudi nationals, but it’s cool, they can keep coming. Wait, isn’t this supposed to be about national security?

This brings me to another problem I have with this order. The security of our Nation. I did a tour in Iraq in 2002 with the United States Marine Corps. I can tell you first hand, individual mindsets towards the United States in this region of the world are extremely fragile. I found that, for the most part, the average Iraqi citizen knew what we were doing there. They knew that they were not the enemy, yet just about every one of them could tell you a story of a friend, a family member, perhaps even a child that was mistakenly killed by U.S. air strikes. So, like I said, these relationships are fragile.

The politics don’t help. One side says no refugee has ever conspired in a single act of terror since 9/11. That’s not true. In fact the Obama administration discovered in 2011 that members of an Al Qaeda terrorist cell network had immigrated to the U.S. from Iraq. They were living in Kentucky, and yes; they were planning terror attacks. Thankfully we stopped them, and, ironically, President Obama ordered a 6 month review of all refugees coming from Iraq while DHS investigated for weaknesses in the vetting process from that country. This was the move that many are calling Obama’s version of Trump’s travel ban, but it was, in fact, not the same because in 2011 there was a clear and present danger from a very specific country and the vetting was merely slowed down for review; not stopped altogether. Trump is painting in broad strokes with a very wide brush with this executive order. On the other side of the spectrum, the prevailing thought makes it sound like every successful terrorist shooting or bombing in this country since 9/11 was done by a refugee that somehow snuck past the existing DHS vetting process. That is not true either. Not one refugee has succeeded in carrying out a terrorist act since 9/11. They have planned and have been caught, but they have never succeeded. Furthermore, there is no evidence that a single refugee with terroristic intentions has made it passed our current vetting process since it was revamped in 2011. I once worked with a cardiologist who happened to be a Syrian refugee. He is a more actuate representation of the refugees who make it through our existing process. The fact is, the current DHS vetting process has been working with great success since 9/11.

That is why this Executive Order is going to backfire. Because it’s a solution to a problem that we do not have; and will serve only to exasperate the problem that we do have: Home-grown Terrorism by radicalized U.S. citizens already living within our borders.

*Rizwan Farook, a U.S. citizen and San Bernardino shooter, was born in Chicago, Illinois.

*Omar Mateen, a U.S. citizen and Pulse nightclub shooter, was born in New Hyde Park, New York

*Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, the Boston Marathon bomber, was brought to the U.S. by his father when he was young and became a legal United States Citizen years before his atrocities.

Let me be clear! There is no possible excuse for what these vicious killers did. But we would be foolish not to try and understand their ideology. These terrorist did what they did because, at some point in their lives, they became angry and disenfranchised with the county they were citizens of. As a result, they turn to radical extremist websites that have perfected the art of corrupting the Islamic religion for the purpose of brainwashing people like this. Manipulating those fragile relationships.

My point is this. Because they were carried out by U.S. citizens already living here, the executive order Trump just signed would not have stopped a single one of those attacks! But I fear it WILL create more of them! More attacks from angry Muslim citizens, on the fringe, having reached their boiling point with this new order, and, for the first time, blinded by anger, consider walking into a gun shop here in America and legally purchasing a high powered rifle. Or what about the child that grows up remembering a time when we had the opportunity to help him and his mother but instead turned them away. The years pass, his mother has long since been raped and killed. He now grows up near a terrorist training camp with a new found hatred for America. The cycle continues.

All I care about is the Security of our nation. I fear we are focusing on the wrong things to keep us safe.