BY THE EDITORIAL BOARD Sacramento Bee
If any American value was served by President Donald Trump’s inhumane treatment of hundreds of ordinary people from Muslim-majority nations this weekend, we would like to know what it is.
How sickening it was to watch Trump’s draconian executive order on refugees play out, indefinitely banning entry to Syrian refugees and suspending U.S. travel for visa and, for a time, even green card holders from Iran, Iraq, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria and Yemen.
The estimated 375 travelers detained or prevented from boarding flights into the U.S. on Saturday were not terrorist threats. They were scientists, medical students, engineers, interpreters who had risked their lives to help the U.S. government.
A Sudanese graduate student at Stanford University was handcuffed and detained at John F. Kennedy International Airport. Two Iranian-born Chicago suburbanites with green cards were held at O’Hare International Airport with their 18-month-old baby. A 70-year-old father joining his son was put on a plane back to Iran at Los Angeles International Airport.
NATIONAL VIGILANCE IS UNDENIABLY IMPORTANT, BUT TRUMP’S ORDER WAS WRONG ON ALMOST EVERY LEVEL, TO THE POINT OF INCOMPETENCE.
