This is Why Trump’s Travel Ban Will Make America Safer

Thanks to some justice and reason from the Supreme Court, President Donald Trump’s travel ban took belated effect on Thursday night. While somewhat weaker than the version signed (which was, itself, weaker than the original version), the ban will nonetheless clamp down severely on the number and character of those who can enter the U.S. from six Middle Eastern nations.

Under the new rules, which will be in effect for the next 90 days, travelers from Sudan, Syria, Iran, Libya, Somalia, and Yemen will have to prove that they have a close family or business relationship with a U.S. entity if they want to be granted a new visa. Citizens of those countries with active visas will be allowed to continue traveling to the U.S. as normal.

Those granted permission to enter the U.S. from the six affected countries will, according to the State Department, only include visitors with parents, children, spouses, siblings, or in-laws living in the United States. Other family relationships, including grandparents and uncles, will not be permitted a waiver.

The ban as it exists now isn’t perfect, by any means. It won’t necessarily keep terrorists – who come from all over – from entering the United States. But it’s important for a few reasons. One, at this point, we needed to see Trump win this victory. The Supreme Court could still come back in October and rule against the constitutionality of the ban, but for now, this was an important restoration of the executive branch’s power – a power that we were deeply concerned about after several federal court rulings. U.S. law is clear when it comes to the president’s authority over national security and immigration, and those rulings were a liberal joke.

More specifically important, of course, is the breathing room this will give to the administration. It’s time to now develop and implement the “extreme vetting” processes that will keep dangerous terrorists from entering the nation. With those processes in place – if done correctly – large-scale bans of this sort will never again be necessary. We will know that anyone who is granted permission to enter the U.S. is someone that deserves to be here – not someone who just wants to infiltrate our communities and kill our citizens.

With Donald Trump, we have, at long last, a president who once again takes seriously his oath to defend and protect this country from threats foreign and domestic. The travel ban is an example of how far he’s willing to go to live up to that oath, and how little he cares about how much bleeding-heart criticism he receives in the process.