Photo by Mark Taylor | CC BY 2.0
The ink on Donald Trump’s executive order barring Muslim immigrants from the U.S. is barely dry, but that’s all the more reason to begin calling for his impeachment. If it only took a week for him to issue a blanket ban on immigrants, how much damage he can do to civil liberties and the Constitution over the next few months or year? As the New York Times reported on January 28th, Trump issued an executive order banning all Muslim refugees from Syria, in addition to all immigrants from numerous countries, including Iraq, Iran, Sudan, Libya, Somalia, and Yemen. The order mandates a 120-day ban for refugees, and a 90-day blanket bank from the countries above.
It didn’t take long for the courts and activists to spring into action. Thousands of anti-Trump activists spontaneously gathered at major airports to protest detainment of those entering the U.S., and a federal district judge in New York declared that the detainment of immigrants on U.S. soil represented a constitutional violation of equal protection under law. The judge ordered a temporary stay on government efforts to detain immigrants already in the U.S. The decision, however, did not impact Trump’s order to ban entry of immigrants currently residing on other country’s soil. Trump’s Chief of Staff Reince Priebus has already begun walking back parts of the order following the mass public outcry. Priebus has informed Americans that the ban will no longer apply to…