Trump’s utterly racist travel ban
“They’re eating the cats, they’re eating the dogs.” It was supposed to be the utterance, the defining moment, that cost Trump the election. On the split screen Vice President Kamala Harris had a perfectly beautiful look of utter amused disbelief. Surely, her look said, this man is out of his goddamn mind. What sane person would vote for this pathetic loser, this liar, this delusional fabulist?
I can’t pass judgment on every person who voted for the monster. Some of them, to be sure, aren’t sane. Some of them are fools. Some of them just don’t care. Some of them actually loaded up their cliche monster trucks and their Trump flags and drove all the way to Springfield, Ohio, to menace and bully and threaten and intimidate the good and gentle Haitian people who were invited to work there, and who most emphatically were NOT eating the cats and the dogs.
And now, as an extension of Trump’s hatred of Haitians, he has, by presidential proclamation, placed a travel ban on Haiti — and a bunch of other countries. They include: Afghanistan, Burma, Chad, Republic of the Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, and Yemen. Trump also restricted and limited the entry of nationals of 7 countries. They are: Burundi, Cuba, Laos, Sierra Leone, Togo, Turkmenistan, and Venezuela.
A presidential proclamation does not have the force of law until it is authorized by the United States Congress. Whether or not Congress passes an enforcing act remains to be seen. It could be that Trump will decide to do it anyway, and have his alphabet soup goons at DHS, ICE and the TSA “muscle” his proclamation into reality. The MAGA wing of Congress will no doubt happily cede even more of its power to Trump to enable him to do just that.
The proclamation falsely claims that “hundreds of thousands of illegal Haitian aliens flooded into the United States during the Biden Administration” and this “influx harms American communities.” That is a provable lie.
In fact, about 200,000 Haitians were granted Temporary Protected Status, which gives legal residency permits to foreign nationals who are unable to return home safely due to conditions in their home countries. In other words, the Haitians Trump lied about last year during the debate were actually legal residents of that Ohio town. What new horror Trump has visited on these sweet and decent people remains to be seen.
The restrictions on Afghans are also jarring, given that many of the Afghans approved to live in the US as refugees were forced to flee their home country as a result of working to support US troops there, before the full withdrawal of US forces in 2021. The agreement with the Taliban to withdraw US troops was negotiated by Trump during his first term.
And speaking of eating cats and dogs, last month, puppy murderer, plastic surgery addict and DHS “Secretary” Kristi Noem announced “the termination of Temporary Protected Status for Afghanistan” effective 20 May. That’s how the United States pays back heroes who helped American troops when stationed in Afghanistan. Because they’re brown, of course.
Naturally all the countries under Trump’s ban are countries predominantly composed of people of colour. What Trump would refer to as “shithole countries.” Trump’s travel ban is a racist extension of the Racist-in-Chief himself. Personally, these days I know of only one shithole country, and Trump has made it that way.
Robert Harrington is an American expat living in Britain. He is a portrait painter.