SCOTUS Upholds Immigration and Nationality Act

We endure another blow to democracy. In today’s narrow 5-4 ruling, the U.S. Supreme Court upheld the Immigration and Nationality Act (also commonly referred to as the Muslim Travel Ban) as constitutional. The unfounded sense of alarm that a group of people may undermine our country’s higher education, national security, healthcare, artistic culture, technology industry, and the overall economy is tremendously credulous.

The Historical Parallels of Trauma in the United States
The INA cannot be repackaged in any other way: it is xenophobic, discriminates humans based on their religious orientation, asserts empty claims of people from Muslim-majority nations traveling to the United States, and repeats the devastating mistakes of splitting up families. From trading enslaved people like property, to sending Native Americans to boarding schools, to justifying the removal of children from their parents’ homes on the basis of the cycle of intergenerational poverty, to deporting Mexican immigrants and Mexican Americans in the 1930s because they were seen as responsible for the economic downturn, to imprisoning Japanese Americans despite their loyalty to the United States, and to forcibly separating children and families that are seeking asylum at the southern border. And now this. On which conditions are screening people on a case-by-case basis deemed necessary and appropriate? Under which conditions do “deficient information-sharing practices” lead to terrorism? Under which occasions do we as a superpower stand up to hate and hostility?  

The Responsibilities of the Government’s Fourth Branch
The Supreme Court’s decision to challenge the religious liberty that which the United States was found marks another dark chapter in our history. Do not tolerate today’s decision. Do not collapse from resistance and compassion fatigue. Do not allow our voices to falter. But do understand the vast consequences and implications of today’s decision, do share power with each other, and do vote in the mid-term elections to reshift the balance of power because we grassroots organizations make up the fourth branch of government.

In the words of House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi, “The President’s disdain for our values and the safety of the American people has led him to undermine relationships with critical allies, embrace autocrats and dictators, launch damaging trade wars and sow fear in our communities with his hateful, ugly language. Whether tearing children from their parents at the border or advancing a ban founded on open bigotry, President Trump is making our nation less safe at home and less respected abroad.”