The Atlantic

What Exactly Is Trump’s Travel Ban Supposed to Stop?

How the president’s advisers have made their case
Source: Ringo Chiu / Reuters

In the two weeks since Donald Trump barred refugees and residents of seven countries from the United States—from the early chaos at airports to the latest judicial ruling against the policy—members of his administration have given inconsistent answers to a persistent question: What specific threat justified these extraordinary measures?

When Trump tweets, as he did on Thursday after the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals refused to lift an injunction against his travel ban, that “THE SECURITY OF OUR NATION IS AT STAKE!,” what concretely does he mean?

The president himself has characterized the threat as imminent, with potential evildoers lurking just off America’s shores. When a federal judge the ban last week, Trump that as a result, “many, “If the ban were announced with a one week notice, the ‘bad’ would rush into our country during that week.”

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