Chaos has ensued at airports around the country following President Trump's executive order on immigration - is this constitutional? Will it keep Americans safe? Which nations were banned and why? We debate the impact; plus, we talk to writer Graeme Wood about a rising and ranking ISIS member whom he discovered to be an American from Texas: John Georgelas.
Debating constitutionality, intent and efficacy of Trump Executive Order on immigration
President Trump signed the executive order Friday.
Chaos followed at airports around the country. Immigration officials weren't clear on how widely the moratorium was being applied. Some Green Card and visa holders from those seven countries weren't being allowed in. Protesters stormed several airports, including LAX, where traffic was stopped and backups extended for miles.
The ACLU got a few judges to order the release of some people being held at airports. The President defended enacting the ban immediately, saying if there'd been one-week notice, "the 'bad' would rush into our country during that week." What's not clear is why there wasn't coordination with immigration officials enforcing the ban. Today on AirTalk, we debate the constitutionality, intent and efficacy of the executive order.
How does the Trump administration want to tighten its vetting process in the next 120 days? Why did it choose these 7 countries and not others? And what impact could this move have on US counterterrorism efforts?
Guests:
Nahal Toosi, foreign affairs reporter for POLITICO; she tweets
Charles Moran, Republican political strategist and the immediate past chairman of the California Log Cabin Republicans, and organization representing gay and lesbian Republicans; he tweets
Ed Espinoza, director of Progress Texas, a political communications firm based in Austin, TX. Former Western States Director for the Democratic National Committee in California and a superdelegate in 2008; he tweets
Peter Spiro, a professor of law at Temple University who focuses on immigration and constitutional law
Josh Blackman, an associate professor of Law at the South Texas College of Law who specializes in constitutional law. He is the author of “Unprecedented: The Constitutional Challenge to Obamacare” (Public Affairs, 2013).
Brian Michael Jenkins, Senior Advisor to the President of the Rand Corporation and one of the nation's leading experts on terrorism and homeland security. He tweets
Erroll Southers, Director of Homegrown Violent Extremism Studies at USC
The American who climbed the ranks of ISIS
ISIS has inspired millions to fight for its dark causes.
One of their avid followers is Yahya Abu Hassan, who has quickly risen up the ranks to become part of the terrorist group’s brain trust. Yahya, as The Atlantic’s Graeme Wood has discovered, is also an American.
In his newest book, “The Way of the Strangers: Encounters with the Islamic State,” Wood traces the journey a wealthy Texas kid named John Georgelas took to become Yahya Abu Hassan.
Guest:
Graeme Wood, contributing editor at The Atlantic and author of the book “The Way of the Strangers: Encounters with the Islamic State” (Random House, 2017)