Promises made, promises kept
by digby
Monzer Shakally was 16 years old when he joined the protests in the streets of Damascus, was arrested and tortured by the Syrian government, and, once released, escaped to find safe haven in the U.S.
Interested in Syria?Add Syria as an interest to stay up to date on the latest Syria news, video, and analysis from ABC News.
Now 23, and entering his second year of dental school in Iowa City, Shakally must wait on edge as the Trump administration possibly terminates his legal status.
The administration is considering ending legal status for Shakally and approximately 7,000 other Syrians living in the U.S. — a move that would force them to find a new legal status, leave the U.S. or even face deportation to Syria.
I’ll just re-up this one from last week:
This isn’t the first time we’ve heard “send them back”
by digby
Trump made it clear during his 2016 campaign that he planned to deport millions back to Mexico and other countries south of the border. But he didn’t stop there:
Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump said Wednesday that he would send Syrian refugees “back” if he were elected to the White House.
In New Hampshire for the first time since he failed to correct a man’s rant about President Barack Obama being a Muslim, Trump was greeted by a few thousand cheering fans — and he was fired up.
Trump outlined the specifics of his new tax plan. But in typical Trump fashion, he didn’t stop there.
On the topic of Syrian refugees, Trump was forceful: “I’m putting people on notice that are coming here from Syria as part of this mass migration, that if I win, they’re going back!”
He explained: “They could be ISIS …This could be one of the great tactical ploys of all time. A 200,000-man army maybe, or if you said 50,000 or 80,000 or 100,000, we got problems and that could be possible. I don’t know that it is, but it could be possible so they’re going back — they’re going back.”
This was big part of his pitch in the early days:
After two days of confusion over whether or not Donald Trump wants to set up a database of Muslims living in the United States, the candidate explained his stance during a political rally on Saturday morning.
“I will absolutely take database on the people coming in from Syria,” Trump said, adding that such a database would not be needed in a Trump administration, as he would kick all Syrian refugees out of the country, regardless of their religion, and allow no more to enter. “If I win, they’re going back. They’re going back. We can’t have them.”
Trump called for heavy surveillance of Syrians, Muslims and anyone with possible ties to the Islamic State. He urged the audience members to be vigilant and report anything suspicious they see to the police.
“I want surveillance of certain mosques, okay? If that’s okay?” Trump said, as thousands of people in the audience cheered. “I want surveillance. And you know what? We’ve had it before, and we’ll have it again.”
His followers cheered that then and they cheer him now. The fact that he didn’t actually do it is meaningless. They just want to make sure that all immigrants of color know that they are not “real Americans” and that this president will make sure they never, ever think they are. It makes them feel good. It makes them feel powerful. It makes them feel relieved that their ugly bigotry is actually ok.