Opinion

Congress May Become Judge Of Trump’s Immigration Order

REUTERS/Carlos Barria

Megan Barth Contributor
Font Size:

Since last Friday, President Donald Trump’s executive order to suspend immigration from seven majority Muslim nations — Iran, Iraq, Syria, Libya, Sudan, Yemen and Somalia — has caused a national debate and protests.  The order has also spurred a number of court cases that may wind themselves all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court.  Some see the fight over President Trump’s nominee, Judge Neil Gorsuch, to sit on the U.S. Supreme Court as a proxy fight to the Trump executive order.

The Trump order suspends the issuance of visas and other immigration benefits to nationals of the listed countries.  According to description from Bloomberg, the order “bars Syrian refugees from entering the U.S. indefinitely, and all other refugees — people fleeing their homelands claiming persecution or fear of violence — for 120 days. It also blocks entry to the U.S. for 90 days to citizens of seven mostly Muslim countries.”  This order impacted a small percentage of travelers in the chaotic hours after the issuance of the order, yet it may impact tens of thousands of visa holders over the next few months if it is allowed to be reinstated by the courts.

One of the interesting arguments that has caused the most controversy is the breadth of the order.  Tech companies have teamed up to argue that the order is over broad and has barred people from entry who pose no threat to the national security of the United States.  Tech companies have employees who can’t get into the United States for work right now and that has lead them to  fight the order as applied to these companies in the courts.

Bradford Smith, President and Chief Legal Officer for Microsoft wrote to Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and Secretary of Homeland Security John Kelly on February 2, 2017 that these Cabinet officials should use authority under Section 3(g) of the executive order the create an exception for “Responsible Known Traveler with Pressing Needs.”  Smith suggests that people who hold one of three types of visas, no criminal record, specific work or family travel to a listed country for less than two weeks and/or with a ban on business travel to those nations.  If those conditions are met, then Smith believes that a suitable exemption will be carved out that will allow many in the tech sector to avoid being caught up in President Trump’s executive order targeting potential terrorists.

It is unlikely in the short term that these Secretaries will take the advice of the tech sector over the President until the courts complete a constitutional analysis of the pending cases.  This issue may end up in Congress with a debate likely to happen in the Senate when the Senate takes up the Gorsuch nomination in the next few months. When Neil Gorsuch comes before the Senate Judiciary Committee he will be asked if this executive order is consistent with the power of the President to protect national security or if it conflicts with a constitutional mandate that there be no establishment of religion implementing a religious test towards refugees and visa holders.  Gorsuch will also be asked if this order is overbroad and bars individuals from entering the United States who pose no threat and were not the target of the executive order.

Microsoft is not the only company caught up in the cross fire. Facebook, Google, Apple and Amazon are all involved in the court fight to protect the holders of H-1B visas who pose no security risk.  These visa holders have already been through some extreme vetting and they have been the subject of criminal check, the existence of employment, a place to live, and documentation.

These foreigners need to stay within our borders because Americans can’t simply take over the important cybersecurity jobs that these H-1B visa holders currently fill.  Currently,over 209,000 cyber security jobs in the U.S. are vacant, and postings are up 74 percent from five years ago. While American schools are certainly starting to ramp up their computer science education instruction, the truth is that we don’t have enough domestic experts to meet demand just yet. Americans’ security is important, why is why Microsoft’s  believes that it’s exception to the executive order should be granted as soon as possible.

Expect the battle in the courts to head to the Senate during the confirmation of Neil Gorsuch.  Although the fight over the Trump executive order is a battle between the executive branch and the judicial branch of the federal government, that fight may shift right over the United States Senate with the president’s nominee to be on the High Court a referendum on Trump’s refugee policy.

PREMIUM ARTICLE: Subscribe To Keep Reading

Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!

Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!
Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!

Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!
Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!

Sign Up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!
Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!
Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!
BENEFITS READERS PASS PATRIOTS FOUNDERS
Daily and Breaking Newsletters
Daily Caller Shows
Ad Free Experience
Exclusive Articles
Custom Newsletters
Editor Daily Rundown
Behind The Scenes Coverage
Award Winning Documentaries
Patriot War Room
Patriot Live Chat
Exclusive Events
Gold Membership Card
Tucker Mug

What does Founders Club include?

Tucker Mug and Membership Card
Founders

Readers,

Instead of sucking up to the political and corporate powers that dominate America, The Daily Caller is fighting for you — our readers. We humbly ask you to consider joining us in this fight.

Now that millions of readers are rejecting the increasingly biased and even corrupt corporate media and joining us daily, there are powerful forces lined up to stop us: the old guard of the news media hopes to marginalize us; the big corporate ad agencies want to deprive us of revenue and put us out of business; senators threaten to have our reporters arrested for asking simple questions; the big tech platforms want to limit our ability to communicate with you; and the political party establishments feel threatened by our independence.

We don't complain -- we can't stand complainers -- but we do call it how we see it. We have a fight on our hands, and it's intense. We need your help to smash through the big tech, big media and big government blockade.

We're the insurgent outsiders for a reason: our deep-dive investigations hold the powerful to account. Our original videos undermine their narratives on a daily basis. Even our insistence on having fun infuriates them -- because we won’t bend the knee to political correctness.

One reason we stand apart is because we are not afraid to say we love America. We love her with every fiber of our being, and we think she's worth saving from today’s craziness.

Help us save her.

A second reason we stand out is the sheer number of honest responsible reporters we have helped train. We have trained so many solid reporters that they now hold prominent positions at publications across the political spectrum. Hear a rare reasonable voice at a place like CNN? There’s a good chance they were trained at Daily Caller. Same goes for the numerous Daily Caller alumni dominating the news coverage at outlets such as Fox News, Newsmax, Daily Wire and many others.

Simply put, America needs solid reporters fighting to tell the truth or we will never have honest elections or a fair system. We are working tirelessly to make that happen and we are making a difference.

Since 2010, The Daily Caller has grown immensely. We're in the halls of Congress. We're in the Oval Office. And we're in up to 20 million homes every single month. That's 20 million Americans like you who are impossible to ignore.

We can overcome the forces lined up against all of us. This is an important mission but we can’t do it unless you — the everyday Americans forgotten by the establishment — have our back.

Please consider becoming a Daily Caller Patriot today, and help us keep doing work that holds politicians, corporations and other leaders accountable. Help us thumb our noses at political correctness. Help us train a new generation of news reporters who will actually tell the truth. And help us remind Americans everywhere that there are millions of us who remain clear-eyed about our country's greatness.

In return for membership, Daily Caller Patriots will be able to read The Daily Caller without any of the ads that we have long used to support our mission. We know the ads drive you crazy. They drive us crazy too. But we need revenue to keep the fight going. If you join us, we will cut out the ads for you and put every Lincoln-headed cent we earn into amplifying our voice, training even more solid reporters, and giving you the ad-free experience and lightning fast website you deserve.

Patriots will also be eligible for Patriots Only content, newsletters, chats and live events with our reporters and editors. It's simple: welcome us into your lives, and we'll welcome you into ours.

We can save America together.

Become a Daily Caller Patriot today.

Signature

Neil Patel