tag:theconversation.com,2011:/ca/topics/travel-ban-36150/articlesTravel ban – The Conversation2024-03-08T04:01:43Ztag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2251582024-03-08T04:01:43Z2024-03-08T04:01:43ZBiden defends immigration policy during State of the Union, blaming Republicans in Congress for refusing to act<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/580628/original/file-20240308-24-r50pvr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">President Joe Biden delivers his State of the Union address on March 7, 2024. </span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/president-joe-biden-delivers-the-annual-state-of-the-union-news-photo/2059263399?adppopup=true">Alex Brandon-Pool/Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p><em>President Joe Biden delivered the annual <a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/speeches-remarks/2024/03/07/remarks-of-president-joe-biden-state-of-the-union-address-as-prepared-for-delivery-2/">State of the Union address</a> on March 7, 2024, casting a wide net on a range of major themes – the economy, abortion rights, threats to democracy, the wars in Gaza and Ukraine – that are preoccupying many Americans heading into the November presidential election.</em></p>
<p><em>The president also addressed massive increases in immigration at the southern border and the political battle in Congress over how to manage it. “We can fight about the border, or we can fix it. I’m ready to fix it,” Biden said.</em></p>
<p><em>But while Biden stressed that he wants to overcome political division and take action on immigration and the border, he cautioned that he will not “demonize immigrants,” as he said his predecessor, former President Donald Trump, does.</em> </p>
<p><em>“I will not separate families. I will not ban people from America because of their faith,” Biden said.</em></p>
<p><em>Biden’s speech comes as a <a href="https://thehill.com/homenews/campaign/4422273-immigration-overtakes-inflation-top-voter-concern-poll/">rising number of American voters</a> say that <a href="https://news.gallup.com/poll/611135/immigration-surges-top-important-problem-list.aspx">immigration is the country’s biggest problem</a>.</em></p>
<p><em><a href="https://gould.usc.edu/faculty/profile/jean-lantz-reisz/">Immigration law scholar Jean Lantz Reisz</a> answers four questions about why immigration has become a top issue for Americans, and the limits of presidential power when it comes to immigration and border security.</em> </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/580622/original/file-20240308-21-t103cg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="President Joe Biden stands surrounded by people in formal clothing and smiles. One man holds a cell phone camera close up to his face." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/580622/original/file-20240308-21-t103cg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/580622/original/file-20240308-21-t103cg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/580622/original/file-20240308-21-t103cg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/580622/original/file-20240308-21-t103cg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/580622/original/file-20240308-21-t103cg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/580622/original/file-20240308-21-t103cg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/580622/original/file-20240308-21-t103cg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">President Joe Biden arrives to deliver the State of the Union address at the US Capitol on March 7, 2024.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/president-joe-biden-arrives-to-deliver-the-state-of-the-news-photo/2067104727?adppopup=true">Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images</a></span>
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<h2>1. What is driving all of the attention and concern immigration is receiving?</h2>
<p>The unprecedented number of undocumented migrants crossing the U.S.-Mexico border right now has drawn national concern to the U.S. immigration system and the president’s enforcement <a href="https://www.npr.org/2023/12/22/1221006083/immigration-border-election-presidential">policies at the border</a>. </p>
<p>Border security has always been part of the immigration debate about how to stop unlawful immigration.</p>
<p>But in this election, the immigration debate is also fueled by images of large groups of migrants crossing a river and crawling through <a href="https://www.cbsnews.com/news/record-number-migrant-border-crossings-december-2023/">barbed wire fences</a>. There is also news of standoffs between Texas law enforcement and U.S. <a href="https://www.texastribune.org/2024/01/24/texas-border-wire-supreme-court/">Border Patrol agents</a> and cities like New York and Chicago struggling to handle the influx of arriving migrants. </p>
<p>Republicans blame Biden for not taking action on what they say is an <a href="https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/trump-doubles-warnings-migrant-crime-border-speech/story?id=107691336">“invasion”</a> at the U.S. border. Democrats blame Republicans for refusing to pass laws that would give the president the power to stop the <a href="https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/biden-and-trump-s-dueling-border-visits-will-encapsulate-a-building-election-clash/ar-BB1j5jKy">flow of migration at the border</a>. </p>
<h2>2. Are Biden’s immigration policies effective?</h2>
<p>Confusion about immigration laws may be the reason people believe that Biden is not implementing effective policies at the border. </p>
<p>The U.S. passed a law in 1952 that gives any person arriving at the border or inside the U.S. the right to apply for asylum and the right to legally stay in the country, even if that person crossed the <a href="https://uscode.house.gov/view.xhtml?req=granuleid:USC-prelim-title8-section1158&num=0&edition=prelim">border illegally</a>. That law has not changed. </p>
<p><a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/2019/politics/trump-overruled/#immigration">Courts struck down</a> many of former President Donald Trump’s policies that tried to limit immigration. Trump was able to lawfully deport migrants at the border without processing their asylum claims during the COVID-19 pandemic under a public health law <a href="https://www.pbs.org/newshour/nation/what-is-title-42-and-what-does-it-mean-for-immigration-at-the-southern-border">called Title 42</a>. Biden continued that policy <a href="https://www.cbsnews.com/news/what-is-title-42-policy-immigration-what-happens-ending-expiration/">until the legal justification for Title 42</a> – meaning the public health emergency – ended in 2023. </p>
<p>Republicans falsely attribute the <a href="https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2024/02/15/migrant-encounters-at-the-us-mexico-border-hit-a-record-high-at-the-end-of-2023/">surge in undocumented migration</a> to the U.S. over the past three years to something they call Biden’s <a href="https://thehill.com/homenews/house/4414432-house-approves-resolution-denouncing-bidens-open-border-policies/">“open border” policy</a>. There is no such policy. </p>
<p>Multiple factors are driving increased migration to the U.S. </p>
<p>More people are leaving dangerous or difficult situations in <a href="https://www.rand.org/pubs/commentary/2024/02/the-crisis-at-the-border-a-primer-for-confused-americans.html">their countries</a>, and some people have waited to migrate until <a href="https://www.migrationpolicy.org/news/border-numbers-fy2023">after the COVID-19 pandemic</a> ended. People who smuggle migrants are also <a href="https://thehill.com/campaign-issues/immigration/3576180-human-smugglers-often-target-migrants-with-misinformation-on-social-media-watchdog/">spreading misinformation</a> to migrants about the ability to enter and stay in the U.S. </p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/580236/original/file-20240306-24-y12r2h.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Joe Biden wears a black blazer and a black hat as he stands next to a bald white man wearing a green uniform and a white truck that says 'Border Patrol' in green" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/580236/original/file-20240306-24-y12r2h.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/580236/original/file-20240306-24-y12r2h.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/580236/original/file-20240306-24-y12r2h.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/580236/original/file-20240306-24-y12r2h.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/580236/original/file-20240306-24-y12r2h.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/580236/original/file-20240306-24-y12r2h.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/580236/original/file-20240306-24-y12r2h.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">President Joe Biden walks with Jason Owens, the chief of the U.S. Border Patrol, as he visits the U.S.-Mexico border in Brownsville, Texas, on Feb. 29, 2024.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/president-joe-biden-walks-with-jason-owens-chief-of-us-news-photo/2041441026?adppopup=true">Jim Watson/AFP via Getty Images</a></span>
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<h2>3. How much power does the president have over immigration?</h2>
<p>The president’s power regarding immigration is limited to enforcing existing immigration laws. But the president has broad authority over how to enforce those laws. </p>
<p>For example, the president can place every single immigrant unlawfully <a href="https://uscode.house.gov/view.xhtml?req=granuleid:USC-prelim-title8-section1103&num=0&edition=prelim">present in the U.S.</a> in deportation proceedings. Because there is not enough money or employees at federal agencies and courts to accomplish that, the president will usually choose to prioritize the deportation of certain immigrants, like those who have committed serious and violent crimes in the U.S. </p>
<p>The federal agency Immigration and Customs Enforcement <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/immigration/2023/12/29/immigrants-ice-border-deportations-2023/#">deported more than 142,000 immigrants</a> from October 2022 through September 2023, double the number of people it deported the previous fiscal year. </p>
<p>But under current law, the president does not have the power to summarily expel migrants who say they are afraid of returning to their country. The law requires the president to process their claims for asylum. </p>
<p>Biden’s ability to enforce immigration law also depends on a budget approved by Congress. <a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/statements-releases/2024/02/29/fact-sheet-impact-of-bipartisan-border-agreement-funding-on-border-operations/">Without congressional approval</a>, the president cannot spend money to build a wall, increase immigration detention facilities’ capacity or send more Border Patrol agents to process undocumented migrants entering the country.</p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/580242/original/file-20240306-18-k0ch8n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A large group of people are seen sitting and standing along a tall brown fence in an empty area of brown dirt." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/580242/original/file-20240306-18-k0ch8n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/580242/original/file-20240306-18-k0ch8n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/580242/original/file-20240306-18-k0ch8n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/580242/original/file-20240306-18-k0ch8n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/580242/original/file-20240306-18-k0ch8n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=565&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/580242/original/file-20240306-18-k0ch8n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=565&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/580242/original/file-20240306-18-k0ch8n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=565&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">Migrants arrive at the border between El Paso, Texas, and Ciudad Juarez, Mexico, to surrender to American Border Patrol agents on March 5, 2024.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/groups-of-migrants-of-different-nationalities-arrive-at-the-news-photo/2054049040?adppopup=true">Lokman Vural Elibol/Anadolu via Getty Images</a></span>
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<h2>4. How could Biden address the current immigration problems in this country?</h2>
<p>In early 2024, Republicans in the Senate refused to pass a bill – developed by a bipartisan team of legislators – that would have made it harder to get asylum and given Biden the power to stop <a href="https://www.cbsnews.com/news/immigration-biden-border-authority/">taking asylum applications</a> when migrant crossings reached a <a href="https://edition.cnn.com/politics/live-news/senate-vote-border-bill-aid-02-07-24/h_3263c78238d0d2de96a203fad7fd9e94">certain number</a>. </p>
<p>During his speech, Biden called this bill the “toughest set of border security reforms we’ve ever seen in this country.”</p>
<p>That bill would have also provided <a href="https://edition.cnn.com/politics/live-news/senate-vote-border-bill-aid-02-07-24/h_3263c78238d0d2de96a203fad7fd9e94">more federal money</a> to help immigration agencies and courts quickly review more asylum claims and expedite the asylum process, which remains backlogged with millions of cases, Biden said. Biden said the bipartisan deal would also hire 1,500 more border security agents and officers, as well as 4,300 more asylum officers. </p>
<p>Removing this backlog in immigration courts could mean that some undocumented migrants, who now might wait six to eight years for an asylum hearing, would instead only wait six weeks, Biden said. That means it would be “highly unlikely” migrants would pay a large amount to be smuggled into the country, only to be “kicked out quickly,” Biden said. </p>
<p>“My Republican friends, you owe it to the American people to get this bill done. We need to act,” Biden said. </p>
<p>Biden’s remarks calling for Congress to pass the bill drew jeers from some in the audience. Biden quickly responded, saying that it was a bipartisan effort: “What are you against?” he asked. </p>
<p>Biden <a href="https://www.cbsnews.com/news/biden-weighs-invoking-executive-authority-stage-border-crackdown-212f/">is now considering</a> using section 212(f) of the <a href="https://www.uscis.gov/laws-and-policy/legislation/immigration-and-nationality-act">Immigration and Nationality Act</a> to get more control over immigration. This sweeping law allows the president to temporarily suspend or restrict the entry of all foreigners if their arrival is detrimental to the U.S.</p>
<p>This obscure law gained attention when Trump used it in January 2017 to implement a <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/white-house/trump-s-immigration-ban-raises-more-questions-answers-here-s-n1188946">travel ban</a> on foreigners from mainly Muslim countries. The Supreme Court upheld the <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2018/07/01/world/americas/travel-ban-trump-how-it-works.html">travel ban in 2018</a>. </p>
<p>Trump again also signed an executive order in April 2020 that <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/white-house/trump-s-immigration-ban-raises-more-questions-answers-here-s-n1188946">blocked foreigners who were seeking lawful permanent residency from entering the country</a> for 60 days, citing this same section of the Immigration and Nationality Act. </p>
<p>Biden did not mention any possible use of section 212(f) during his State of the Union speech. If the president uses this, it would likely be challenged in court. It is not clear that 212(f) would apply to people already in the U.S., and it conflicts with existing asylum law that gives people within the U.S. the right to seek asylum.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/225158/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Jean Lantz Reisz does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>A rising number of Americans say that immigration is the country’s biggest problem. Biden called for Congress to pass a bipartisan border and immigration bill during his State of the Union.Jean Lantz Reisz, Clinical Associate Professor of Law, Co-Director, USC Immigration Clinic, University of Southern CaliforniaLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1600722021-05-16T12:16:26Z2021-05-16T12:16:26ZIndian variant and travel bans: COVID-19 warnings should be rooted in science, not anti-South Asian racism<p>At the end of April, the Canadian government implemented a month-long travel ban to and from India and Pakistan due to COVID-19 crises both countries face and a new strain of the virus linked to India. The travel bans and new mutations have exacerbated the animosity South Asians have faced as a result of being singled out for COVID-19 outbreaks.</p>
<p>The Indian variant, <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/may/06/new-concerns-indian-covid-variant-clusters-found-across-england-ongoing-risk-high">or B.1.617</a>, has been dubbed a “double mutant,” and data suggests that it is <a href="https://theconversation.com/whats-the-new-coronavirus-variant-in-india-and-how-should-it-change-their-covid-response-157957">more contagious than the original virus</a>. However, little is still known about the variant including if vaccines will work against it. </p>
<p>The World Health Organization (WHO) <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/health/who-classifies-b1617-variant-first-identified-in-india-as-global-variant-of-concern-1.6020830">designated the variant as being of concern</a>, like the mutations from the U.K., South America and South Africa. Yet the western media sensationalized the variant <a href="https://nationalpost.com/news/amid-surging-cases-and-double-mutant-variant-flights-from-india-touch-down-in-canada">as soon as it was detected.</a></p>
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<p>As the Indian variant becomes more prevalent within our borders, anti-South Asian sentiment is also growing, putting the community at a higher risk of hate crimes. </p>
<p>As a first generation South Asian Canadian and an anti-racism scholar at Carleton University, I’m interested in looking at the effects of the pandemic on the perception of minority communities. Due to the rise in hate crimes against the East Asian community, my concern is that South Asians will face the same violence but with less public support.</p>
<h2>History of anti-South Asian racism</h2>
<p>Over the past year, since the COVID-19 pandemic spread globally, there has been a <a href="https://theconversation.com/as-asian-canadian-scholars-we-must-stopasianhate-by-fighting-all-forms-of-racism-157743">rise in anti-Asian racism</a>, specifically targetting East Asian communities.</p>
<p>Tensions were exacerbated when former U.S. president Donald Trump referred to the <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/brucelee/2020/06/24/trump-once-again-calls-covid-19-coronavirus-the-kung-flu/">virus as the “Kung Flu” and “China Virus.”</a> In the past month, the <a href="https://www.stopasianhate.info/">#StopAsianHate</a> movement has led to wide scale social supports and a coming together of the international community.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/the-atlanta-attacks-were-not-just-racist-and-misogynist-they-painfully-reflect-the-society-we-live-in-157389">The Atlanta attacks were not just racist and misogynist, they painfully reflect the society we live in</a>
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<p>In contrast, hate crimes against the South Asian community have been, and continue to be, largely under-reported. And when they are acknowledged, the stories quickly cycle out of the news.</p>
<p>Since South Asian people began migrating to Canada, <a href="https://www.southasiancanadianheritage.ca/march-1907/">they have been the targets of biased laws, stereotyping and violence</a>. From the <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/air-india-bombing-35-years-1.5623206">Air India Bombing in 1985</a>, an event that is largely unknown by Canadians despite it being the worst mass murder in the country’s history, to the egregious acts of <a href="https://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/hate-crimes-rose-after-911/article1132924/">violence in the aftermath of 9/11</a>, South Asians have been left to shoulder pain and grief alone. </p>
<p>More recently, <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2021/04/18/sikh-indianapolis-shooting/">four Sikhs were among those murdered at a FedEx centre in in Indianapolis</a>. There has been speculation that the <a href="https://www.vox.com/2021/4/20/22392178/indianapolis-shooting-sikh-americans">shooter chose the centre because a large number of Sikhs worked there</a>. This shooting came a month after <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/live/2021/03/17/us/shooting-atlanta-acworth">six Asian women were killed in Atlanta</a>. </p>
<p>Unlike the Atlanta shooting, the Indianapolis shooting quickly disappeared from public view with very <a href="https://msmagazine.com/2021/04/24/south-asian-racism-fedex-indianapolis-sikh-shooting/">few rallying behind the Sikh community</a>. </p>
<p>This lack of public support is parallel to the silence around hate <a href="https://saalt.org/tag/hate-crimes/">crimes against South Asians since 9/11</a>. <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2012/08/06/us/shooting-reported-at-temple-in-wisconsin.html">The Oak Creek Gurdwara shooting</a> in Wisconsin, multiple incidents of <a href="https://globalnews.ca/news/4678325/kelowna-sikh-temple-vandalized-with-racist-graffiti/">racist graffiti</a> and anti-South Asian sentiment have run rampant for the last 20 years. South Asians have had, and continue to, shoulder pain and grief of their own communities while trying to survive in a western world.</p>
<h2>Fueling fear and hate</h2>
<p>As COVID-19 cases rose across Canada, regions with large South Asian populations became targets for politicians and the public.</p>
<p>The <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/covid-19-rates-in-south-asian-communities-require-nuanced-understanding-scholar-explains-1.5810591">Fraser Valley</a>, <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/brampton-coronavirus-covid-19-south-asian-1.5723330">Peel region</a> and <a href="https://dailyhive.com/calgary/kenney-calgary-south-asian-communities-covid-19-cases">Calgary</a> were reported as being COVID-19 hotspots because of large families and super spreader events. What the media and government officials failed to acknoweldge is that immigrant communities are largely frontline workers, who had little choice but to go into work during the pandemic.</p>
<p>Cultural and religious events such as <a href="https://quickbitenews.com/article/brampton/diwali-celebrations-cause-concerns-over-next-covid-19-surge-in-brampton/">[Diwali]</a> and <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2020/4/13/anger-as-right-wing-uk-voices-suggest-ramadan-virus-spread">Ramadan</a> have been implicated in rising case numbers. </p>
<p>The media has consistently demonized immigrant populations for the high number of COVID-19 cases, without taking into account what these communities are facing. The housing market and <a href="https://www.americanprogress.org/issues/race/news/2020/04/14/483125/economic-fallout-coronavirus-people-color/">economic hardships faced by racialized people</a> forces them into situations - such as sharing homes and working in factories - <a href="https://www.newswire.ca/news-releases/cpho-sunday-edition-the-impact-of-covid-19-on-racialized-communities-877262749.html">that put them at a higher risk of contracting the virus</a>. </p>
<p>The reporting of the travel ban and Indian variant borders on irresponsible due to the <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-021-01274-7">lack of scientific evidence</a>, as well as framing the country and those who originate there as <a href="https://www.thestar.com/opinion/contributors/2021/04/28/south-asians-are-suffering-from-covid-19-disproportionately-as-loved-ones-in-india-are-in-crisis-racializing-the-variant-opens-up-racist-scapegoating.html">potential threats.</a></p>
<p>South Asians are as frustrated and scared as the rest of Canadians. However, biased reporting only works to further marginalize individuals who are already feeling vulnerable in a time of tense race relations.</p>
<h2>Stop racially biased reporting</h2>
<p>Recently, <a href="https://www.thejuggernaut.com/whatsapp-forwards-stoke-fear-and-spread-misinformation-during-india-covid-crisis">WhatsApp messages</a> have been circulating warning Americans against interacting with South Asians. It is reminiscent of the anti-Chinese rhetoric that took place at the beginning of the pandemic. </p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1390325018207432706"}"></div></p>
<p>The tone with which the U.K., South American and South African variants have been reported has not spurred any hostility towards those countries and its citizens, making it difficult to not see the implicit racism. </p>
<p>South Asians are asking for the media and government officials to root their warnings in scientific evidence, not stereotypes.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/160072/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Jasmeet Bahia does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>As the Indian variant becomes more prevalent within our borders, anti-South Asian sentiment is also growing, putting the community at a higher risk of hate crimes.Jasmeet Bahia, PhD Student, Sociology, Carleton UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1606242021-05-10T09:49:51Z2021-05-10T09:49:51ZPart of the legal challenge to the India travel ban has been comprehensively defeated — here’s why<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/399694/original/file-20210510-18-10icbd7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=40%2C40%2C5422%2C3055&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">A woman and child on a bus in New Delhi.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Manish Swarup/AP/AAP</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>One part of a legal challenge to the <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-05-04/scott-morrison-defends-india-covid-travel-ban-australia-jail/100113848">Commonwealth’s India travel ban</a> was <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-05-10/federal-court-judge-throws-out-part-of-india-travel-ban/100129520">comprehensively defeated</a> in the Federal Court on Monday evening. </p>
<p>Justice Thawley rejected all the arguments made by the applicant, <a href="https://www.9news.com.au/national/india-travel-suspension-arrival-ban-pause-legal-challenge-court-greg-hunt/ff8741b2-289c-4a41-bdb6-cbd9971739dd">Gary Newman</a>, a 73-year-old Australian citizen who has been in India since March 2020. </p>
<p>Newman’s challenge was divided into two stages. </p>
<p>The first stage was heard and dismissed by the Federal Court on Monday. This leaves open the possibility Newman will proceed with the second stage, which is a constitutional challenge. However, there may be no time to do so, assuming that the ban is lifted on Friday 15 May, <a href="https://www.pm.gov.au/media/resumption-indian-repatriation-flights-howard-springs">as proposed</a>.</p>
<p>What arguments did Newman make and on what grounds did the judge find that they failed?</p>
<h2>Did the minister fail to satisfy the requirements of the Act?</h2>
<p>Newman’s first argument was the health minister (in this case, Greg Hunt) had failed to satisfy the conditions imposed in <a href="http://www.austlii.edu.au/cgi-bin/viewdoc/au/legis/cth/consol_act/ba2015156/s477.html">section 477</a> of the Biosecurity Act on the exercise of his power. It was argued Hunt had failed to consider the impact of the potential spread of COVID throughout prisons if people breached the travel ban and returned from India with COVID and were immediately placed in prison, without bail or quarantine. </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/is-australias-india-travel-ban-legal-a-citizenship-law-expert-explains-160178">Is Australia's India travel ban legal? A citizenship law expert explains</a>
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<p>Justice Thawley was quite dismissive of this argument suggesting there was no serious possibility this would occur. </p>
<p>Newman also argued the minister had not considered other less intrusive and restrictive measures. However, Justice Thawley pointed out the minister had set out some exceptions to the ban in his <a href="https://www.legislation.gov.au/Details/F2021L00533">determination</a>, including for medical evacuation flights and for members of Australian medical assistance teams. The minister had therefore turned his mind to how he could reduce the intrusive effect of the ban.</p>
<p>Another technical argument was that the law was “extraterritorial” in its application because it operated outside Australia and this was not permitted under the Biosecurity Act. But Justice Thawley rejected this, noting no offence occurred under the minister’s determination until a person actually entered into Australian territory. So it was not extraterritorial in its application. </p>
<h2>Was there a breach of a fundamental common law right?</h2>
<p>The second main argument by Newman was that the right of an Australian citizen to enter Australia is a fundamental <a href="https://law.uq.edu.au/files/27798/Statute%20and%20Common%20Law%20%28Final%29.pdf">common law</a> right. This was accepted by the Commonwealth government. </p>
<p>It was also accepted that fundamental common law rights cannot be limited by legislation unless the parliament does so with “irresistible clearness”. This is known as the “<a href="https://www.ruleoflaw.org.au/the-principle-of-legality/#:%7E:text=The%20principle%20of%20legality%20is,by%20clear%20and%20unambiguous%20language.">principle of legality</a>”. It means parliament has to take full responsibility for any restriction on fundamental common law rights, and this can only be done if it acknowledges clearly in its legislation what it is doing. </p>
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<img alt="Qantas plane landing in Darwin in October 2020." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/399699/original/file-20210510-5702-zzp5xq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/399699/original/file-20210510-5702-zzp5xq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/399699/original/file-20210510-5702-zzp5xq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/399699/original/file-20210510-5702-zzp5xq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/399699/original/file-20210510-5702-zzp5xq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/399699/original/file-20210510-5702-zzp5xq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/399699/original/file-20210510-5702-zzp5xq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">All flights from India have been suspended until May 15.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Charlie Bliss/AAP</span></span>
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<p>While Justice Thawley agreed this was the relevant principle, he thought it was clear the Biosecurity Act was intended to permit the restriction of fundamental common law rights, including the movement of citizens in and out of Australia. He reached this conclusion by looking at various other provisions in the Act which showed an intention to limit the movement of people into and out of Australia. </p>
<p>Justice Thawley also noted section 477 of the Act is deliberately drafted broadly because it was intended to deal with emergencies which could not be anticipated in their scale and effect. He noted that even though it gave a very broad power to the health minister, it could only be exercised when certain conditions were satisfied. </p>
<p>First, there needed to be a “<a href="http://www.austlii.edu.au/cgi-bin/viewdoc/au/legis/cth/consol_act/ba2015156/s475.html">human biosecurity emergency</a>” — which requires an assessment of a severe and immediate threat or harm to human health on a nationally significant scale. </p>
<p>Second, section 477 includes detailed matters of which the minister must be satisfied before making a determination. This includes that it is no more restrictive or intrusive than necessary. These limitations were included to ensure that the minister’s very broad power, which included the potential to limit fundamental common law rights, is not exercised in an abusive manner. </p>
<p>Newman’s argument therefore failed.</p>
<h2>What happens now?</h2>
<p>The failure of Newman’s arguments means there are really only two practical courses left. First, there could be a separate hearing of the constitutional points. They are that (a) there is an implied constitutional right of a citizen to enter Australia; and (b) there was no constitutional power to enact section 477. </p>
<p>Second, there could be an appeal from Justice Thawley’s judgment on the first part of the case to the Full Federal Court. </p>
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<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/its-not-surprising-indian-australians-feel-singled-out-they-have-long-been-subjected-to-racism-160179">It's not surprising Indian-Australians feel singled out. They have long been subjected to racism</a>
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<p>The difficulty, however, is timing. If the minister’s determination ceases to operate on May 15, as planned, then there would be no “matter” to be determined by a court, leaving the issue moot. </p>
<p>So it is unlikely, at this stage, that the proceedings will continue, unless the travel ban affecting citizens is extended, or a new travel ban is implemented.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/160624/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Anne Twomey has received funding from the Australian Research Council and occasionally does consultancy work for governments and inter-governmental bodies.</span></em></p>There could still be another challenge on constitutional grounds, but there may not be time before the ban ends anyway.Anne Twomey, Professor of Constitutional Law, University of SydneyLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1605392021-05-10T02:15:43Z2021-05-10T02:15:43ZFlights have resumed between New Zealand and NSW, but the temporary travel pause may not be the last<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/399608/original/file-20210509-21-1btfnw3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C408%2C4865%2C2903&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">James D. Morgan/Getty Images</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>New Zealand has <a href="https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/442211/travel-bubble-we-re-ready-to-reopen-to-nsw-modeller-says">resumed quarantine-free travel</a> with New South Wales today, even though the Australian state’s government has <a href="https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/world/442178/nsw-nz-flights-to-resume-despite-longer-covid-19-restrictions">extended restrictions</a> in greater Sydney for another week. </p>
<p>From New Zealand’s perspective, the fact no further community cases have been discovered gives us confidence we’re not overlooking a large hidden outbreak after all. </p>
<p>While a few cases might trickle in over the days ahead, provided these are linked to the cluster, they shouldn’t lead to another pause in travel.</p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1391518961087356928"}"></div></p>
<p>The ban on quarantine-free travel was <a href="https://www.beehive.govt.nz/release/quarantine-free-travel-new-south-wales-paused">put in place</a> last week in response to <a href="https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/world/441942/restrictions-for-greater-sydney-after-second-covid-19-case-emerges">two new cases of COVID-19 in Sydney</a>. It was the third time travel has been paused from a specific state, which highlights the challenges in tracking the risk of an outbreak across jurisdictions with different systems in place.</p>
<p>The decision to pause travel with NSW was in line with the <a href="https://covid19.govt.nz/assets/resources/fact-sheets/COVID-19-How-a-COVID-19-case-in-Australia-would-be-managed.pdf">plan</a> New Zealand’s government set out when it announced the trans-Tasman bubble. </p>
<p>When a case has no clear link to the border, travel may be paused until we are confident the outbreak has been contained.</p>
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<img alt="Guide for the trans-Tasman bubble" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/399411/original/file-20210507-27-2cy4xg.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/399411/original/file-20210507-27-2cy4xg.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=310&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/399411/original/file-20210507-27-2cy4xg.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=310&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/399411/original/file-20210507-27-2cy4xg.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=310&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/399411/original/file-20210507-27-2cy4xg.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=390&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/399411/original/file-20210507-27-2cy4xg.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=390&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/399411/original/file-20210507-27-2cy4xg.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=390&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">This guide explains what happens if COVID-19 cases are detected in Australia.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
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<h2>Red flags</h2>
<p>The first Sydney case had some red flags. Although a <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-05-06/nsw-records-second-positive-covid-case/100119774">genomic link</a> was established with a case in a Sydney quarantine facility, there was no known contact between that person and the community case. This means there is almost certainly a missing link in the chain of transmission. </p>
<p>Additional risk factors include the person’s high viral load, the large number of locations they visited while infectious, and the positive result in sewage testing. Together these opened up the possibility the detected case could have been the tip of a much larger iceberg.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/more-than-a-dozen-covid-leaks-in-6-months-to-protect-australians-its-time-to-move-quarantine-out-of-city-hotels-159808">More than a dozen COVID leaks in 6 months: to protect Australians, it's time to move quarantine out of city hotels</a>
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<p>As New Zealand’s COVID-19 response minister Chris Hipkins <a href="https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/441985/watch-nz-s-quarantine-free-travel-with-new-south-wales-to-be-paused">said</a>, the decision to hit pause was a line call. But, given the unknowns, it was a good decision to buy time for the results of contact-tracing and testing in Sydney to come in. </p>
<p>The Sydney case had higher risk factors than <a href="https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/441595/new-covid-19-cases-in-perth-new-zealand-temporarily-pauses-flights-from-wa">recent cases in Perth</a>, which had also prompted a pause to quarantine-free travel. </p>
<h2>Different states, different approaches</h2>
<p>This highlights differences between Australian states’ responses. Western Australia has tended to be more risk-averse, and promptly announced a <a href="https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/441595/new-covid-19-cases-in-perth-new-zealand-temporarily-pauses-flights-from-wa">snap lockdown</a> in response to a recent case with a clear link to the border. </p>
<p>NSW seems to have higher tolerance for risk, possibly because of higher confidence that its contact-tracing system can control outbreaks. </p>
<p>The principle of the trans-Tasman bubble is that New Zealand and each Australian state has to make their own decisions about when to close their borders. Once most of New Zealand’s population is vaccinated, the risk from this type of situation will be much smaller, but until then we need to maintain our strategy to keep COVID-19 out of the community.</p>
<p>One of the challenges of the trans-Tasman bubble is that people will move relatively quickly, which means COVID-19 can spread quickly. This makes contact-tracing all the more important, but doing this across borders is not as easy as it might seem. </p>
<h2>Differences in contact tracing</h2>
<p>Health authorities on each side have to share information about active cases, their movements and their contacts, all while respecting privacy regulations on both sides. A “<a href="https://www.itnews.com.au/news/nsw-victoria-and-act-to-link-up-contract-tracing-systems-555867">data exchange</a>” was trialled in three Australian states last year, but doesn’t appear to have been rolled out more broadly yet.</p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1383893177409544198"}"></div></p>
<p>For Australia and New Zealand, this sharing is a manual exercise because our contact-tracing apps are not compatible with each other due to fundamental design differences. The Bluetooth protocols are different: Australia uses <a href="https://www.dta.gov.au/news/covidsafe-captures-close-contacts-new-herald-protocol">Herald</a>; New Zealand uses the <a href="https://www.health.govt.nz/our-work/diseases-and-conditions/covid-19-novel-coronavirus/covid-19-resources-and-tools/nz-covid-tracer-app/getting-started-nz-covid-tracer/bluetooth-tracing">Apple/Google exposure notifications system</a>. And they store data in different places. </p>
<p>Australia’s apps are centralised, with data going to servers controlled by health officials, protected by legislation. New Zealand’s app is decentralised, with data staying on the device until the user tests positive for COVID-19 and voluntarily provides it to contact tracers. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="QR code for New Zealand's COVID-10 tracing app." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/399610/original/file-20210509-17-sb08z4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/399610/original/file-20210509-17-sb08z4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/399610/original/file-20210509-17-sb08z4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/399610/original/file-20210509-17-sb08z4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/399610/original/file-20210509-17-sb08z4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/399610/original/file-20210509-17-sb08z4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/399610/original/file-20210509-17-sb08z4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">New Zealand and Australia use different apps for contact tracing, and they are not compatible.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Brendon O'Hagan/Bloomberg via Getty Images</span></span>
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</figure>
<p>These differences mean we can’t easily automate the sharing of data between Australia and New Zealand, and people can’t get automatic alerts across multiple jurisdictions. But this isn’t necessarily a bad thing, because it means human contact-tracers can verify information and decide what is important enough to share. And they can provide context with the data so appropriate actions can be taken. </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/closed-borders-travel-bans-and-halted-immigration-5-ways-covid-19-changed-how-and-where-people-move-around-the-world-157040">Closed borders, travel bans and halted immigration: 5 ways COVID-19 changed how – and where – people move around the world</a>
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<p>This manual approach wouldn’t work as well in countries with high rates of COVID-19 because the sheer number of cases would be impossible to keep up with. But it is effective in countries like New Zealand and Australia, which are committed to stamping out COVID-19.</p>
<p>As we gradually open the borders and more people start to travel internationally, we will need good contact-tracing processes to give us confidence that health officials can quickly contain any outbreaks. While the vaccines are coming, we will all need to remain vigilant for a while longer.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/160539/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Michael Plank is affiliated with the University of Canterbury and receives funding from the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment (MBIE) and Te Pūnaha Matatini, New Zealand's Centre of Research Excellence in complex systems. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>I have ongoing discussions with the Ministry of Health about digital contact tracing but have no financial relationship.</span></em></p>The trans-Tasman travel bubble has come to a temporary regional halt three times now, highlighting the challenges in tracking the risk of an outbreak across jurisdictions with different systems.Michael Plank, Professor in Applied Mathematics, University of CanterburyAndrew Chen, Research Fellow at Koi Tū: The Centre for Informed Futures, University of Auckland, Waipapa Taumata RauLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1560322021-03-04T19:27:57Z2021-03-04T19:27:57ZHow would digital COVID vaccine passports work? And what’s stopping people from faking them?<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/387633/original/file-20210304-15-182a66w.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=128%2C75%2C4931%2C3292&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Although international travel restrictions for Australia have been extended to at least June, there may still be potential for a trans-Tasman bubble with New Zealand (and maybe some other countries), <a href="https://www.executivetraveller.com/news/australia-s-international-travel-ban-extended-to-june-2021">according to reports</a>.</p>
<p>Air New Zealand will begin <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/feb/23/air-new-zealand-to-trial-covid-vaccine-passport-on-sydney-flights">trialling</a> digital vaccine passports (or “immunity passports”) on routes to Australia in April. Ideally, these digital certificates will allow authorities to quickly check whether prospective travellers have been vaccinated. </p>
<p>The specific passport system New Zealand is set to adopt — along with <a href="https://www.iata.org/en/pressroom/pr/2020-12-16-01/">Qantas</a>, <a href="https://www.businesstraveller.com/business-travel/2021/02/26/malaysia-airlines-debuts-iata-travel-pass/">Malaysia Airlines</a>, Singapore Airlines and Qatar Airways — is the International Air Transport Association (IATA)‘s <a href="https://www.iata.org/en/pressroom/pr/2020-12-16-01/">digital Travel Pass app</a>.</p>
<p>But to be effective, this system would need to meet several key criteria. The vaccine passports would need to be linked securely to travellers, comply with different countries’ regulations and be almost impossible to illegally copy or modify.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/387637/original/file-20210304-19-1bazsmp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Air New Zealand plane flying in sky" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/387637/original/file-20210304-19-1bazsmp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/387637/original/file-20210304-19-1bazsmp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/387637/original/file-20210304-19-1bazsmp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/387637/original/file-20210304-19-1bazsmp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/387637/original/file-20210304-19-1bazsmp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/387637/original/file-20210304-19-1bazsmp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/387637/original/file-20210304-19-1bazsmp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Air New Zealand will trial the Travel Pass app on flights between Auckland and Sydney. Qantas is also set to trial the app but hasn’t yet announced exactly which vaccine passport technology it will adopt.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>How would it work?</h2>
<p>It’s expected at least the vast majority of people travelling on an airline using the IATA software will have to use the pass. The system has four steps:</p>
<ol>
<li><p>a vaccine-recording component for when a person is first vaccinated</p></li>
<li><p>the transfer of this person’s vaccine-related and personal data to the IATA software</p></li>
<li><p>verification of the data by an authorised party</p></li>
<li><p>digital cross-checking, to ensure a government’s travel requirements are applied to all travellers entering or leaving that country. This would also make sure each traveller has the necessary prerequisites needed to enter their destination country.</p></li>
</ol>
<p>The software would work by establishing an international network of trusted vaccine providers. The IATA is already compiling this list. These providers, including hospitals and clinics, would receive access to the software’s vaccine-recording component. </p>
<p>With this they’d log information about a patient’s vaccination and identity details (such as passport number). So you’d almost certainly need to present a valid passport when getting vaccinated.</p>
<p>For those already vaccinated by the time the system is rolled out, an option would be needed to transfer existing records to the app. Again, this would require confirmation the person requesting the data transfer is the same person who was vaccinated.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/a-covid-vaccine-passport-may-further-disadvantage-refugees-and-asylum-seekers-155287">A COVID 'vaccine passport' may further disadvantage refugees and asylum seekers</a>
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</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>Before-departure checks</h2>
<p>Once your vaccine and identification details are logged, this would generate a data file to be sent securely to the app’s software. This file would be encrypted and stored on the device itself, only to be retrieved by an authorised person with your consent. </p>
<p>Border and airline staff could check whether the lab identification is valid by comparing it to the IATA’s list of trusted vaccine providers. This check would be done using a wireless near-field communication system, similar to that used for contactless payments. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/387634/original/file-20210304-20-74qesg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Scanning passport at machine." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/387634/original/file-20210304-20-74qesg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/387634/original/file-20210304-20-74qesg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/387634/original/file-20210304-20-74qesg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/387634/original/file-20210304-20-74qesg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/387634/original/file-20210304-20-74qesg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/387634/original/file-20210304-20-74qesg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/387634/original/file-20210304-20-74qesg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Near-field communication between devices can happen over a distance of four centimetres or less.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>At this point, the border control unit would also confirm if the identification you presented when getting your vaccine is still valid. They could also check your passport against the national passport database, which is standard procedure.</p>
<p>Such a system could be set up to flag important updates. If a vaccine batch failed quality control, or a certain provider was removed from the approved providers list, this would need to be reflected quickly.</p>
<h2>Security advantages of vaccine passports</h2>
<p>A notable advantage of vaccine passports is they’re hard to forge compared to paper records. The IATA software would unbreakably link your identification details with your vaccination status. </p>
<p>Even if someone stole your phone or copied its data, this data would match only your passport. If they stole your passport, too, they’d likely still get caught during normal passport checks.</p>
<p>On Apple (iOS) smartphones the in-built “<a href="https://www.howtogeek.com/339705/what-is-apples-secure-enclave-and-how-does-it-protect-my-iphone-or-mac/">secure enclave</a>” feature would prevent your Travel Pass app information from being moved remotely to another device without the right permissions. Android and other operating systems have similar tools used for smart wallets.</p>
<p>Using vaccine passports also minimises data sharing. In each case of information transaction, such as when crossing border control, the only data shared are your identification details and vaccine information.</p>
<h2>An achievable set-up</h2>
<p>Most countries are requiring that all COVID vaccines administered be recorded on a national register. In Australia, this is the <a href="https://www.health.gov.au/health-topics/immunisation/getting-vaccinated/check-immunisation-history">Australian Immunisation Register</a>. </p>
<p>The <a href="https://www.iata.org/en/programs/passenger/travel-pass/">IATA</a> will publish the Travel Pass app’s software interface, which is what enables other programs to transfer data to and from the software.</p>
<p>With the interface available, countries should be able to simply integrate the software into their own vaccine management systems. Governments could even apply their own rules to the software.</p>
<p>For instance, one may decide to reject vaccine records from a particular provider, or demand a longer waiting period once a vaccine is received. </p>
<p>This could obviously cause problems for travellers who may be planning to go to a destination with different protocols to the origin country. That’s why this would have to be sorted prior to travel, just as visas often are.</p>
<h2>Minor issues and loopholes</h2>
<p>For now, a digital vaccine passport would only be available for people with a smartphone or tablet. Also, each traveller in a group would need their own vaccine passport. </p>
<p>This could be tricky for families with young children or other dependants who don’t (or can’t) use smart devices. One fix would be for parents or carers to store dependants’ information on their own device.</p>
<p>The only credible route for vaccine passport forgery would be if a vaccination management system, such as one used by a GP or hospital, somehow recorded patient data incorrectly. </p>
<p>This could be done by someone deliberately impersonating someone else. Then again, the impostor would have to convince both the health worker administering their vaccine and staff at the airport. This would be difficult if a passport is used. </p>
<p>Similarly, a hacker could potentially attack the Australian Immunisation Register (or other vaccine registers) to generate false data to feed into the IATA system. But these registries tend to be well-protected. </p>
<p>And if one were compromised, it would be simple to invalidate vaccine certificates tracing back to it for as long as the issue wasn’t resolved.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/before-we-introduce-vaccine-passports-we-need-to-know-how-theyll-be-used-156197">Before we introduce vaccine passports we need to know how they'll be used</a>
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</em>
</p>
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<img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/156032/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Dave Parry does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>If a trans-Tasman travel bubble were to be established, passengers would likely need to use ‘vaccine passports’ to prove their vaccination status. But any tech-based system comes with security risks.Dave Parry, Professor of Computer Science, Auckland University of TechnologyLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1538432021-01-28T13:30:46Z2021-01-28T13:30:46ZTravelers coming from Italy may have driven first US COVID-19 wave more than those from China, study suggests<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/380955/original/file-20210127-23-1055kmi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C5419%2C3184&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">The U.S. banned travel from China early, but the late timing of other travel bans meant the coronavirus had other routes into the U.S.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://newsroom.ap.org/detail/VirusOutbreakThanksgivingTravel/2f2e823ea61b4df88ac48788352ee71f/photo">AP Photo/John Minchillo</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>The coronavirus was still a far-away problem in Wuhan when U.S. President Donald Trump announced a <a href="https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2020/01/31/801686524/trump-declares-coronavirus-a-public-health-emergency-and-restricts-travel-from-c">ban on travel from China</a> in late January 2020. Six weeks later, as the coronavirus ravaged Italy, <a href="https://www.npr.org/2020/03/11/814597993/trump-set-to-deliver-address-as-coronavirus-deemed-a-pandemic">Trump closed travel from Europe</a>.</p>
<p>These travel bans were highly controversial. Some people argued that they were <a href="https://foreignpolicy.com/2020/02/23/virus-travel-bans-are-inevitable-but-ineffective/">unnecessary</a> restrictions on travel. Others said they came too late. As New York’s COVID-19 case numbers shot upward, Gov. Andrew Cuomo said the U.S. had “closed the front door with the China ban … but we <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2020/04/24/new-york-gov-cuomo-says-the-us-acted-too-late-to-control-the-coronavirus-the-horse-had-already-left-the-barn.html">left the back door wide open</a>,” because the virus had already spread to other countries. </p>
<p>One big question remains: Once the virus was in the U.S., how much impact did international travel actually have on COVID-19 cases and deaths?</p>
<p>As <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=w19BmLkAAAAJ&hl=en">researchers</a> <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=X-fVoKwAAAAJ&hl=en">with experience</a> studying airlines, we pulled together data to start answering that question. We compared COVID-19 cases and deaths in nearly 1,000 U.S. counties against the numbers of passengers arriving in each from two countries targeted by the bans – China and Italy. </p>
<p><a href="https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3753069">Our results</a>, released as a preprint study, suggest that travelers coming from Italy drove the first wave in the U.S. more than those from China. They also point to two conclusions about travel bans:</p>
<p>First, if a government is going to impose a travel ban, it should act quickly. The virus spreads fast.</p>
<p>Second, don’t impose narrow travel bans that just target individual countries. Because the virus spreads so quickly, you have to assume the virus has already spread to other countries. </p>
<p>We are discussing our findings before the paper has undergone peer review because the results are important for decisions being made now. On Jan. 25, 2021, almost a year after Trump’s ban on travel from China, the Biden administration issued <a href="https://travel.state.gov/content/travel/en/News/visas-news/presidential-proclamation-coronavirus.html">new travel bans</a> on countries that have rising numbers of new <a href="https://theconversation.com/how-to-stay-safe-with-a-fast-spreading-new-coronavirus-variant-on-the-loose-153292">fast-spreading variants</a> of SARS-CoV-2.</p>
<h2>Italy versus China</h2>
<p><a href="https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3753069">In our study</a>, we used data on international airline travel and U.S. county-level statistics on COVID-19 cases and deaths. We wanted to find out: Did U.S. counties with more arrivals from two initial COVID-19 hot spots – Italy and China – experience more COVID-19 cases or deaths during the first U.S. wave of the pandemic? </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Map of virus pathways" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/380993/original/file-20210127-15-1ko6l41.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/380993/original/file-20210127-15-1ko6l41.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=442&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/380993/original/file-20210127-15-1ko6l41.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=442&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/380993/original/file-20210127-15-1ko6l41.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=442&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/380993/original/file-20210127-15-1ko6l41.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=555&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/380993/original/file-20210127-15-1ko6l41.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=555&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/380993/original/file-20210127-15-1ko6l41.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=555&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Early travel pathways of the novel coronavirus, through March 2020.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://nextstrain.org/narratives/ncov/sit-rep/2020-03-27">Nextstrain</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>There are several challenges in trying to assess the relationship between international travel and COVID-19 outbreaks. Fewer people might travel to cities that are in the midst of a pandemic outbreak. The areas that attract many foreign travelers may also have more severe COVID-19 outbreaks for other reasons. For example, places attracting a lot of foreign travelers may have more large events such as conferences and sporting events. </p>
<p>We used data on passengers arriving from non-COVID-19 hot spots to help control for these factors. We also took into account other factors that can affect the virus’s spread and impact, such as population size and density, use of public transportation, demographics, policies and economic activity.</p>
<p>We came away with two key results:</p>
<ul>
<li><p>U.S. counties that received more passengers from China at the beginning of the pandemic did not experience higher COVID-19 infection and fatality rates than other counties on average through May 2020; in fact, both outcomes were lower.</p></li>
<li><p>Counties that received more passengers from Italy at the beginning of the pandemic experienced higher COVID-19 infection and fatality rates. Specifically, an additional 100 passengers from Italy arriving in a given county during the fourth quarter of 2019 corresponded with an increase in both case and death rates of about 5%.</p></li>
</ul>
<h2>Benefits of broader bans</h2>
<p>Our preliminary results suggest that travelers coming from Italy drove the first wave in the U.S. more than those from China. Other researchers have linked the predominant strain of virus <a href="http://doi.org/10.1126/science.abc1917">in New York City early in the pandemic to Europe</a>.</p>
<p>Based on our evidence, the relatively early ban on travel from China appears to have been effective in reducing cases and deaths.</p>
<p>In late January 2020, when Trump shut down flights from China, the virus may have not yet spread widely enough among travelers from China to significantly contribute to the early wave of the pandemic in the U.S. Waiting until mid-March to impose a ban on travel from Europe, however, may have had deadly consequences. </p>
<p>The lesson: If a travel ban is warranted, time is of the essence.</p>
<h2>Does that mean future bans will work?</h2>
<p>Although our results provide strong evidence that international travel from Italy increased the spread of COVID-19 in the U.S. during the first wave of the pandemic, this occurred at a time when people were largely unaware of the virus and the threat that it posed.</p>
<p>Today, with both travelers and policymakers aware of the threat, it is uncertain what effect international travel would have on the spread of COVID-19 in the U.S. At the same time, new, more transmittable strains of the virus increase the threat from international travel. If the evidence does warrant additional travel restrictions, our research says to act quickly and think broadly.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/153843/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The results from an emerging study suggest governments should act quickly if they plan to impose travel bans – before the virus can spread widely to other countries.Jeff Prince, Professor and Chair of Business Economics and Public Policy, Indiana UniversityDaniel Simon, Associate Professor of Public Affairs, Indiana UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1508962021-01-26T13:29:03Z2021-01-26T13:29:03ZWhat is an executive order, and why don’t presidents use them all the time?<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/380026/original/file-20210121-13-hs8vow.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C5446%2C3604&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Modern presidents, including Trump and Obama, have issued far fewer executive orders than their predecessors before World War II.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/president-joe-biden-signs-a-series-of-orders-in-the-oval-news-photo/1230701851?adppopup=true">Jim Watson/AFP via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Just hours after taking the oath of office, President Joe Biden signed <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2021/01/20/us/biden-executive-orders.html">nine executive orders</a> – far surpassing every other president’s first day on the job in modern history. </p>
<p>These orders advance urgent issues like COVID-19 response and undo many of Trump’s policies on immigration and environmental deregulation. </p>
<p>Biden is not the first U.S. president to issue an executive order, and he certainly won’t be the last. <a href="https://doi.org/10.1111/ajps.12190">My own research</a> shows executive orders have been a mainstay in American politics – with limitations. </p>
<h2>What is an executive order?</h2>
<p>Though the Constitution plainly articulates familiar presidential tools like vetoes and appointments, the real executive power comes from reading between the lines. </p>
<p>Presidents have long interpreted the Constitution’s <a href="https://www.law.cornell.edu/constitution/articleii">Article 2 clauses</a> – like “the executive power shall be vested in a President” and “he shall take care that the laws be faithfully executed” – to give them total authority to enforce the law through the executive branch, by any means necessary. </p>
<p>One leading way they do that is through executive orders, which are presidential written directives to agencies on how to implement the law. The courts view them as legally valid unless they violate the Constitution or existing statutes. </p>
<p>Executive orders, like other unilateral actions, allow presidents to make policy outside of the regular lawmaking process.</p>
<p>This leaves Congress, notoriously polarized and gridlocked, to respond.</p>
<p>Thus, executive orders are unilateral actions that give presidents several advantages, allowing them to <a href="https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1741-5705.2005.00258.x">move first and act alone</a> in policymaking.</p>
<h2>How have they historically been used?</h2>
<p>Every U.S. president has issued executive orders since they were first systematically cataloged in 1905. </p>
<p>In March of 2016, then-presidential candidate <a href="https://thehill.com/policy/energy-environment/331134-trump-using-executive-orders-at-unprecedented-pace">Donald Trump criticized</a> President Obama’s use of executive orders. </p>
<p>“Executive orders sort of came about more recently. Nobody ever heard of an executive order. Then all of a sudden Obama – because he couldn’t get anybody to agree with him – he starts signing them like they’re butter,” <a href="https://thehill.com/policy/energy-environment/331134-trump-using-executive-orders-at-unprecedented-pace">Trump said</a>. “So I want to do away with executive orders for the most part.” </p>
<p>Little in this statement is true. </p>
<p>Obama signed fewer orders than his predecessors – averaging <a href="https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/statistics/data/executive-orders#eotable">35 per year.
Trump issued an average of 55 per year.</a> </p>
<p>Against conventional wisdom, presidents have relied less on executive orders over time. Indeed, modern presidents used drastically fewer orders per year – an average of 59 – than their pre-World War II counterparts, who averaged 314. </p>
<p>Executive orders have been used for everything from routine <a href="https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/documents/executive-order-13490-ethics-commitments-executive-branch-personnel">federal workplace policies</a> like ethics pledges to the controversial <a href="https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/documents/executive-order-13769-protecting-the-nation-from-foreign-terrorist-entry-into-the-united">2017 travel ban</a> restricting entry into the United States. </p>
<p>They have been used to <a href="https://millercenter.org/issues-policy/us-domestic-policy/making-teapot-dome-scandal-relevant-again">manage public lands</a>, <a href="https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/documents/executive-order-11615-providing-for-stabilization-prices-rents-wages-and-salaries">the economy</a>, <a href="https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/documents/executive-order-11246-equal-employment-opportunity">the civil service and federal contractors</a>, and to respond to various crises such as <a href="https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/documents/executive-order-12283-united-states-iran-agreement-release-the-american-hostages">the Iran hostage situation</a> and <a href="https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/documents/executive-order-organizing-and-mobilizing-the-united-states-government-provide-unified-and">the COVID-19 pandemic</a>. </p>
<p>Presidents often use them to advance their biggest agenda items, by <a href="https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/documents/executive-order-13507-establishment-the-white-house-office-health-reform">creating task forces or policy initiatives</a> and <a href="https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/documents/executive-order-13771-reducing-regulation-and-controlling-regulatory-costs">directing rulemaking</a>, the process for formally translating laws into codified policy. </p>
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<h2>Limitations in their use</h2>
<p>Why don’t presidents always issue executive orders, a seemingly powerful policy device? Because they come with serious constraints. </p>
<p>First, executive orders may not be as unilateral as they seem. Drafting an order involves a time-consuming <a href="https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1741-5705.2012.03945.x">bargaining process</a> with various agencies negotiating its content. </p>
<p>Second, if they are issued without proper legal authority, executive orders can be overturned by the courts – although that <a href="https://www.fjc.gov/history/administration/judicial-review-executive-orders">happens infrequently</a>.</p>
<p>Trump’s travel ban faced several legal challenges before it was written in a way to <a href="https://www.oyez.org/cases/2017/17-965">satisfy the court</a>. Many of his initial orders, on the other hand, didn’t face legal scrutiny because they simply requested agencies to work <a href="https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/documents/executive-order-13765-minimizing-the-economic-burden-the-patient-protection-and-affordable">within their existing authority</a> to change important policies like health care and immigration. </p>
<p>Congress is another barrier, as they give presidents the legal authority to make policy in a certain area. By withholding that authority, Congress can deter presidents from issuing executive orders on certain issues. If the president issues the order anyway, the courts can overturn it.</p>
<p>Legislators can also punish presidents for issuing executive orders they do not like by sabotaging their legislative agendas and nominees or defunding their programs. </p>
<p>Even a polarized Congress can find ways to sanction a president for an executive order they don’t like. For example, a committee can hold an oversight hearing or launch an investigation – both of which can <a href="https://press.princeton.edu/books/hardcover/9780691171852/investigating-the-president">decrease a president’s public approval rating</a>.</p>
<p>Congresses of today are equipped to impose these constraints and they do so more often on ideologically opposed administrations. This is why scholars find modern presidents issue <a href="https://doi.org/10.1111/ajps.12190">fewer executive orders under divided government</a>, contrary to <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2012/04/23/us/politics/shift-on-executive-powers-let-obama-bypass-congress.html?_r=0">popular media narratives</a> that present executive orders as a president’s way of circumventing Congress. </p>
<p>Finally, executive orders are not the last word in policy. They can be easily revoked. </p>
<p>New presidents often reverse previous orders, particularly those of political opponents. Biden, for instance, quickly <a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/presidential-actions/2021/01/20/executive-order-ensuring-a-lawful-and-accurate-enumeration-and-apportionment-pursuant-to-decennial-census/">revoked Trump’s directives</a> that excluded undocumented immigrants from the U.S. Census.</p>
<p>All recent presidents have issued revocations, especially in their first year. They <a href="https://doi.org/10.1111/ajps.12294">face barriers</a> in doing so, however, including public opinion, Congress and legal limitations. </p>
<p>Regardless, executive orders are <a href="https://doi.org/10.1111/psq.12473">not as durable</a> as laws or regulations. </p>
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<h2>The future of executive orders</h2>
<p>What will change for executive orders in a post-Trump era? I wouldn’t expect much. </p>
<p><a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/11/08/us/politics/biden-trump-executive-action.html">As he promised</a>, Biden has already revoked numerous Trump executive orders and issued new ones on some big agenda items. He’ll likely <a href="https://www.vox.com/21557717/joe-biden-executive-order-student-debt-climate">issue more</a>: for example, to tackle racial injustice and student debt.</p>
<p>Other policies, like an economic stimulus, will require legislation since Congress holds the purse strings. </p>
<p>Though Biden inherits a Democratic House and Senate, their majorities are marginal, and moderate party dissenters may frustrate his agenda. Even so, he will undoubtedly use all available legal authority to unilaterally transform his goals into government policy. </p>
<p>But then again, these directives may be undone by the next president with the stroke of a pen.</p>
<p>[<em>The Conversation’s Politics + Society editors pick need-to-know stories.</em> <a href="https://theconversation.com/us/newsletters/politics-weekly-74/?utm_source=TCUS&utm_medium=inline-link&utm_campaign=newsletter-text&utm_content=politics-need-to-know">Sign up for Politics Weekly</a>.]</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/150896/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Sharece Thrower does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Executive orders aren’t as unilateral as they seem. Here’s how government keeps them in check.Sharece Thrower, Assistant Professor of Political Science, Vanderbilt UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1450892020-08-30T19:58:11Z2020-08-30T19:58:11ZThere’s a ban on leaving Australia under COVID-19. Who can get an exemption to go overseas? And how?<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/355037/original/file-20200827-20-1jc3qft.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=43%2C18%2C4046%2C2964&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Darren England/AAP</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Australians are all too aware of the restrictions on <a href="https://theconversation.com/federal-court-finds-border-closures-safest-way-to-protect-public-health-in-clive-palmer-case-145038">interstate travel</a> and <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-05-08/international-travel-still-banned-coronavirus-restrictions/12229114">on who can currently enter Australia</a>. </p>
<p>But people may not realise there is also a <a href="https://covid19.homeaffairs.gov.au/leaving-australia">ban on overseas travel</a> for all Australian citizens and residents, subject to a limited number of exemptions. </p>
<p>Since March, about <a href="https://www.smh.com.au/lifestyle/life-and-relationships/definite-shift-in-border-force-approach-to-travel-ban-as-approvals-surge-20200828-p55qfu.html">one in three</a> requests to leave the country have been granted. This comes amid reports of Australians facing <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-06-25/coronavirus-travel-ban-exemption-red-tape-criticised/12388946">huge hurdles</a> to see sick and dying relatives overseas. </p>
<p>So, what’s going on? Who can actually leave Australia at the moment? </p>
<h2>What is the ban?</h2>
<p>The <a href="https://www.legislation.gov.au/Details/F2020L00306/Html/Text?fbclid=IwAR3jB5wEVkCe4PSF8yLl-EtDOLGUXsWyP28ieG1IDw9_2q6dzBLq7EoSwas">ban on leaving</a> Australia was put in place by Health Minister Greg Hunt on March 25, as an “<a href="http://classic.austlii.edu.au/au/legis/cth/consol_act/ba2015156/s477.html">emergency requirement</a>” under the Biosecurity Act. It is the first time Australia has had such a ban, and it was made on the advice of the Australian Health Protection Principal Committee. </p>
<p>The <a href="https://www.legislation.gov.au/Details/F2020L00306/Html/Text?fbclid=IwAR3jB5wEVkCe4PSF8yLl-EtDOLGUXsWyP28ieG1IDw9_2q6dzBLq7EoSwas">determination</a> says plainly: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>An Australian citizen or permanent resident … must not leave Australian territory as a passenger on an outgoing aircraft or vessel. </p>
</blockquote>
<p>The accompanying statement explains,</p>
<blockquote>
<p>[This] is in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, which continues to represent a severe and immediate threat to human health in Australia and across the globe. </p>
</blockquote>
<h2>Is this legal?</h2>
<p>The government legally made the determination under the Biosecurity Act, which gives the health minister power to put in place “<a href="http://classic.austlii.edu.au/au/legis/cth/consol_act/ba2015156/s477.html">any requirement</a>” they believe is necessary to prevent or control the entry or spread of the virus into Australia. </p>
<p>International law <a href="https://www.kaldorcentre.unsw.edu.au/publication/covid-19-travel-bans-right-seek-asylum-when-you-cannot-leave-your-homeland">recognises</a> the right to leave any country, including your own, but there is no equivalent constitutional protection in Australia.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Man pushing a baggage trolly past an empty airport carousel." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/355038/original/file-20200827-16-1m1ekkj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/355038/original/file-20200827-16-1m1ekkj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=355&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/355038/original/file-20200827-16-1m1ekkj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=355&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/355038/original/file-20200827-16-1m1ekkj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=355&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/355038/original/file-20200827-16-1m1ekkj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=447&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/355038/original/file-20200827-16-1m1ekkj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=447&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/355038/original/file-20200827-16-1m1ekkj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=447&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">There is a legal ban on Australians leaving Australia.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Darren England/AAP</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>In other words, Australians don’t have a constitutional right to leave Australia. </p>
<p>Strict exit bans for citizens are generally associated with authoritarian states, like North Korea and the former USSR. But the Health Department <a href="https://www.smh.com.au/lifestyle/life-and-relationships/on-par-with-north-korea-three-out-of-four-requests-to-leave-australia-refused-20200814-p55luj.html">has said</a> the ban is needed because of the burden returning residents place on quarantine arrangements, the health system and testing regimes. </p>
<p>The government has also argued it is “<a href="https://www.legislation.gov.au/Details/F2020L00306/Replacement%20Explanatory%20Statement/Text">impossible</a>” to only ban travel to specific places, due to the fast-moving nature of the pandemic in different countries.</p>
<h2>Who can leave Australia at the moment?</h2>
<p>Anyone who isn’t a citizen or resident is allowed to leave Australia. </p>
<p>Some <a href="https://covid19.homeaffairs.gov.au/leaving-australia">Australians are</a> also still free to leave. This includes those who are “ordinarily resident in a country other than Australia”, airline and maritime crew, outbound freight workers, and essential workers at offshore facilities. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/australians-dont-have-a-right-to-travel-does-covid-mean-our-days-of-carefree-overseas-trips-are-over-144862">Australians don't have a 'right' to travel. Does COVID mean our days of carefree overseas trips are over?</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>All other citizens and residents must have an exemption if they want to leave. They need to <a href="https://covid19.homeaffairs.gov.au/leaving-australia#toc-2">apply online </a>(which is free) and then bring the approved exemption to the airport. </p>
<p>To be granted an exemption, you must have a “<a href="https://www.legislation.gov.au/Details/F2020L00306/Html/Text?fbclid=IwAR3jB5wEVkCe4PSF8yLl-EtDOLGUXsWyP28ieG1IDw9_2q6dzBLq7EoSwas">compelling reason</a>” for needing to leave Australian territory, and your travel must fall into one of the following categories:</p>
<ul>
<li>compassionate or humanitarian grounds </li>
<li>part of the response to the COVID-19 outbreak</li>
<li>essential for the conduct of critical industries and business </li>
<li>to receive urgent medical treatment unavailable in Australia</li>
<li>urgent and unavoidable personal business</li>
<li>in the national interest.</li>
</ul>
<h2>Most applications to leave are not successful</h2>
<p>Despite these exemptions, it is still difficult to get permission to leave. Only about one in three requests are being granted. </p>
<p>According to Border Force, between March and mid-August it received <a href="https://www.smh.com.au/national/nsw/sydney-businessman-given-travel-permit-to-pick-up-a-luxury-yacht-20200821-p55o8s.html">more than 104,000 requests</a> to leave Australia. About 34,300 exemptions have been granted.</p>
<p>Exemption applications are assessed by Border Force and applicants are advised to apply <a href="https://travel-exemptions.homeaffairs.gov.au/tep">at least two weeks</a> but not more than three months before departure. </p>
<p>Border Force adds: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>If you are travelling due to death or critical illness of a close family member, you can apply inside this timeframe and we will prioritise your application.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>However, timeframes haven’t been guaranteed and people have reported significant delays <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-06-25/coronavirus-travel-ban-exemption-red-tape-criticised/12388946">even in emergency situations</a>. If a request is refused, an applicant can reapply. </p>
<p>Failing to comply with the ban is a <a href="https://www.legislation.gov.au/Details/F2020L00306/Replacement%20Explanatory%20Statement/Text">criminal offence</a>, punishable by up to five years’ prison, a $63,000 fine, or both. </p>
<h2>Are Victorians especially banned?</h2>
<p>There is nothing to exclude Victorians, currently under Stage 3 and 4 restrictions, from applying to leave Australia. </p>
<p>The Victorian government <a href="https://www.dhhs.vic.gov.au/information-overseas-travellers-coronavirus-disease-covid-19">directs</a> residents to federal government advice regarding overseas trips. </p>
<p>However, Victorians would also need to comply with or seek exemptions from state-based restrictions (including for travel to the airport, for example) where an exemption was granted. </p>
<h2>What are the problems with the ban?</h2>
<p>Usually when governments pass legislation, they provide definitions of key terms. However, no definitions for any exemptions are included in the <a href="https://www.legislation.gov.au/Details/F2020L00306/Html/Text?fbclid=IwAR3jB5wEVkCe4PSF8yLl-EtDOLGUXsWyP28ieG1IDw9_2q6dzBLq7EoSwas">travel ban determination</a>, which was made by Hunt and not reviewed by parliament. </p>
<p>What exemptions like “urgent and unavoidable personal business” cover is unclear, to say the least (<a href="https://www.smh.com.au/national/nsw/sydney-businessman-given-travel-permit-to-pick-up-a-luxury-yacht-20200821-p55o8s.html">luxury yacht</a>, anyone?). </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Grounded Qantas planes against Sydney skyline." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/355255/original/file-20200828-19-tz05c3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/355255/original/file-20200828-19-tz05c3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/355255/original/file-20200828-19-tz05c3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/355255/original/file-20200828-19-tz05c3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/355255/original/file-20200828-19-tz05c3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/355255/original/file-20200828-19-tz05c3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/355255/original/file-20200828-19-tz05c3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The ban on overseas travel was introduced in March as the coronavirus crisis took hold in Australia.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Biance De Marchi/AAP</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>There have been <a href="https://www.smh.com.au/lifestyle/life-and-relationships/on-par-with-north-korea-three-out-of-four-requests-to-leave-australia-refused-20200814-p55luj.html">repeated stories</a> of Australians having enormous difficulties getting permission to see family and loved ones overseas. Although <a href="https://www.smh.com.au/lifestyle/life-and-relationships/definite-shift-in-border-force-approach-to-travel-ban-as-approvals-surge-20200828-p55qfu.html">recent reports suggest</a> the process is becoming easier. </p>
<p>One woman <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2020/aug/09/i-was-helpless-the-australians-caught-up-in-a-dysfunctional-covid-travel-exemption-system">reported</a> difficulty meeting the “compassionate grounds” exemption because her dying step-parent was not in hospital, due to a choice to spend his last days at home. Another received <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2020/aug/09/i-was-helpless-the-australians-caught-up-in-a-dysfunctional-covid-travel-exemption-system">three different responses</a> to the same request. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/small-funerals-online-memorials-and-grieving-from-afar-the-coronavirus-is-changing-how-we-care-for-the-dead-134647">Small funerals, online memorials and grieving from afar: the coronavirus is changing how we care for the dead</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>Applicants must provide <a href="https://covid19.homeaffairs.gov.au/leaving-australia">sufficient documentation</a>, but it is also unclear what documents are required. People whose documents are not in English must have them officially translated as part of an application. Those in distressed or bereaved states must nonetheless <a href="https://www.smh.com.au/world/europe/i-am-on-prison-island-australia-s-travel-ban-tearing-families-apart-20200707-p559z4.html">gather complex documentary evidence</a>, which may include death certificates, or proof of an event or relationship. </p>
<p>Due to this lack of clarity, some people are seeking the advice of migration agents to help them leave Australia. </p>
<p>This adds to the <a href="https://www.smh.com.au/national/can-we-still-call-australia-home-the-refrain-of-expats-facing-shut-borders-and-20k-flights-20200819-p55n4i.html">ever-growing costs</a> of mobility during the pandemic, while creating the extraordinary circumstance where <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-06-25/coronavirus-travel-ban-exemption-red-tape-criticised/12388946">legal advice is needed</a> to help residents and citizens depart their own country. </p>
<h2>When will the ban end?</h2>
<p>Australia’s complete travel ban has not been adopted in similar countries. In <a href="https://safetravel.govt.nz/covid-19-coronavirus">New Zealand</a>, <a href="https://travel.gc.ca/travelling/advisories">Canada </a>and <a href="https://www.gov.uk/foreign-travel-advice">Britain</a>, overseas travel is strongly advised against but not banned.</p>
<p>Other countries to have completely prohibited travel <a href="https://www.kaldorcentre.unsw.edu.au/publication/covid-19-travel-bans-right-seek-asylum-when-you-cannot-leave-your-homeland">include</a> Kazakhstan, Lithuania and Uzbekistan. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/how-covid-19-could-impact-travel-for-years-to-come-142971">How COVID-19 could impact travel for years to come</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>Australia’s ban will automatically cease when the “biosecurity emergency period” is declared over, unless revoked beforehand. </p>
<p>But while the the current period runs until <a href="https://www.aph.gov.au/Parliamentary_Business/Committees/Senate/Scrutiny_of_Delegated_Legislation/Scrutiny_of_COVID-19_instruments">September 17</a>, it is likely to be extended. In June, Hunt warned borders will remained closed for a “<a href="https://www.sbs.com.au/news/australia-s-borders-will-be-closed-for-a-very-significant-amount-of-time-greg-hunt-says">very significant</a>” amount of time. </p>
<p>Although he also described Australia as an “<a href="https://www.sbs.com.au/news/australia-s-borders-will-be-closed-for-a-very-significant-amount-of-time-greg-hunt-says">island sanctuary</a>”, it’s unlikely the many people held on either side of its borders feel the same way.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/145089/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Anthea Vogl does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Coronavirus means Australians are not allowed to travel overseas. Since March, only about third of the special requests to leave the country have been granted.Anthea Vogl, Senior lecturer, University of Technology SydneyLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1448622020-08-28T02:05:29Z2020-08-28T02:05:29ZAustralians don’t have a ‘right’ to travel. Does COVID mean our days of carefree overseas trips are over?<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/355206/original/file-20200827-14-17tkt5s.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">www.shutterstock.com</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Australia is a nation of enthusiastic travellers, it is one of our defining national characteristics. </p>
<p>At any given time, <a href="https://www.pwc.com.au/publications/pdf/the-australian-diaspora.pdf">around a million</a> of us are living and working overseas. In 2019, a record <a href="https://www.abs.gov.au/ausstats/abs@.nsf/lookup/3401.0Media%20Release1Dec%202019">11.3 million</a> Australian residents went on short-term trips, double the figure of ten years earlier. </p>
<p>But COVID-19 has radically changed our capacity to go and be overseas. Will we ever travel so easily and readily again?</p>
<h2>You don’t have the ‘rights’ you probably thought you had</h2>
<p>Travel may be of <a href="https://www.traveller.com.au/why-do-australians-travel-so-much-gk8ind">huge importance</a> to Australians, but it is not a right or entitlement. </p>
<p>When you leave Australia, you also take on an element of risk. The federal government has long-warned their help in a crisis will have “<a href="https://www.smartraveller.gov.au/i-need-urgent-help">limits</a>”. The consular services <a href="https://www.smartraveller.gov.au/consular-services/consular-services-charter">charter</a> says, </p>
<blockquote>
<p>You don’t have a legal right to consular assistance and you shouldn’t assume assistance will be provided.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Australians don’t even have the absolute right to a <a href="https://www.dfat.gov.au/sites/default/files/every-assistance-and-protection-a-history-of-the-australian-passport.pdf">passport</a>, although in practice, it is rarely denied.</p>
<p>International law provides for the right to <a href="https://humanrights.gov.au/our-work/rights-and-freedoms/freedom-movement">freedom of movement</a> - both in and out of Australia. As the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights says,</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Everyone shall be free to leave any country, including his own. [This] shall not be subject to any restrictions except those which are provided by law, are necessary to protect national security, public order … <strong>public health</strong> or morals or the rights and freedoms of others … No one shall be arbitrarily deprived of the right to enter his own country. </p>
</blockquote>
<p>Australia ratified the covenant in 1980, but there is <a href="https://www.ag.gov.au/rights-and-protections/human-rights-and-anti-discrimination/human-rights-scrutiny/public-sector-guidance-sheets/right-freedom-movement">no Commonwealth legislation</a> enshrining the right of freedom of movement. </p>
<p>Even if there was, this doesn’t mean it would override legitimate public health concerns.</p>
<h2>Coming home is no longer simple</h2>
<p>In March, when the pandemic took off, the Morrison government advised Australians overseas <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/business/2020/mar/17/coalitions-second-multibillion-dollar-coronavirus-stimulus-expected-to-target-businesses-and-low-income-earners">to return home</a>. </p>
<p>But coming back is no longer a simple question of booking a ticket and getting on a flight. For one thing, the global airline industry <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/laurabegleybloom/2020/06/27/airlines-coronavirus-travel-bankruptcy/#7c8cc8395f69">has collapsed</a>, making available flights scarce. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/why-airlines-that-can-pivot-to-ultra-long-haul-flights-will-succeed-in-the-post-coronavirus-era-140466">Why airlines that can pivot to ultra-long-haul flights will succeed in the post-coronavirus era</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>As part of Australia’s COVID response, caps have also now been placed on international arrivals. In July, the number of Australian citizens and residents allowed into the country was then reduced by a third, from <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-07-10/national-cabinet-international-arrivals-coronavirus-quarantine/12441932">about 7,000 to about 4,000 a week</a>, to ease the pressure on the hotel quarantine system. This system will be in place until <a href="https://www.pm.gov.au/media/national-cabinet-7aug2020">at least October</a>. </p>
<p>Prime Minister Scott Morrison explained he knew this made it more difficult for people to come home, but the policy was not “surprising or unreasonable”. Rather, </p>
<blockquote>
<p>[it will] ensure that we could put our focus on the resources needed to do testing and tracing.</p>
</blockquote>
<h2>Nightmare logistics</h2>
<p>According to the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, <a href="https://www.aap.com.au/thousands-of-aussies-trying-to-return-home/">more than 371,000 </a>Australians overseas have returned since March. </p>
<p>But <a href="https://www.sbs.com.au/news/more-than-18-000-australians-stranded-overseas-by-coronavirus-are-still-trying-to-return-home">more than 18,000</a> are still stuck overseas, saying they want to come home. Last week, a Senate inquiry heard <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/business/2020/aug/20/travel-industry-attacks-state-premiers-saying-border-closures-cost-84m-a-day">about 3,000</a> of this group were “vulnerable” for medical and financial reasons.</p>
<p>There are a growing number of <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-07-23/coronavirus-pandemic-why-so-many-australians-still-to-come-home/12464258?nw=0">media reports</a> detailing the stories of those stranded overseas. Many are <a href="https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/morrison-looking-at-options-to-help-australians-stranded-overseas-20200821-p55o4g.html">desperate to return</a> for financial and personal reasons. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Man in mask at airport, looking at ticket." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/355085/original/file-20200827-14-10eoe8t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/355085/original/file-20200827-14-10eoe8t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=434&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/355085/original/file-20200827-14-10eoe8t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=434&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/355085/original/file-20200827-14-10eoe8t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=434&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/355085/original/file-20200827-14-10eoe8t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=546&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/355085/original/file-20200827-14-10eoe8t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=546&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/355085/original/file-20200827-14-10eoe8t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=546&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">More than 18,000 Australians are still overseas and want to come home.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">www.shutterstock.com</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>People have spoken about the complex logistics involved in returning - including <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/triplej/programs/hack/young-australians-stuck-overseas-flight-caps/12571500">lack of available flights</a>, <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/business/2020/aug/07/unethical-australians-trying-to-fly-home-claim-airlines-cancelling-economy-tickets-to-sell-more-first-class-seats">lack of affordable flights</a> - with reports of tickets costing <a href="https://www.smh.com.au/national/can-we-still-call-australia-home-the-refrain-of-expats-facing-shut-borders-and-20k-flights-20200819-p55n4i.html#comment">as much as A$20,000</a> - strict border controls <a href="https://www.worldaware.com/covid-19-alert-uae-clarified-restrictions-residents-nationals-wishing-exit-country-late-july-1">to exit</a> the country they are in, and the <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-07-13/covid-travellers-charged-to-pay-for-coronavirus-quarantine-in-sa/12450150">cost of quarantining</a> when they get home.</p>
<p>Internal <a href="https://theconversation.com/did-someone-say-election-how-politics-met-pandemic-to-create-fortress-queensland-144067">border closures</a> in Australia have added a further level of complexity.</p>
<p>On Friday, The Sydney Morning Herald reported the Morrison government was drawing up new plans <a href="https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/rescue-plan-to-bring-home-stranded-aussies-from-overseas-20200827-p55ptr.html">to evacuate Australians</a> stuck overseas.</p>
<p>It is worth noting that despite people’s understandable frustrations, the Australian government has limited options to help here - and the options they do have are not simple. They can potentially charter flights or cruise ships, but this is not straightforward because it requires agreements from host countries, available planes and ships, and can be hugely expensive.</p>
<h2>Leaving Australia is no longer simple, either</h2>
<p>Less visible, but very concerning from a <a href="https://www.traveller.com.au/covid19-pandemic-and-border-closures-why-australians-are-banned-from-international-travel-h1pds6">rights</a> perspective, is the Australians who are stuck in Australia. A state generally should allow citizens to leave their own country. </p>
<p>There are wide-ranging <a href="https://www.smartraveller.gov.au/crisis/covid-19-and-travel">bans</a> on people leaving Australia during the coronavirus pandemic, with a limited range of <a href="https://covid19.homeaffairs.gov.au/leaving-australia">exemptions</a>.</p>
<p>There are obviously <a href="https://www.smh.com.au/world/europe/i-am-on-prison-island-australia-s-travel-ban-tearing-families-apart-20200707-p559z4.html">compelling reasons</a> why people will still want to travel, given Australia’s strong international connections, especially when close relatives are ill or dying overseas. </p>
<p>But again, we don’t actually have a “right” under domestic law to leave Australia - with the federal government able to control our movements under the <a href="https://www.legislation.gov.au/Details/F2020L00306">Biosecurity Determination 2020</a>.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/ruby-princess-inquiry-blames-nsw-health-officials-for-debacle-144512">Ruby Princess inquiry blames NSW health officials for debacle</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>Between March 25 and August 16, Australian Border Force received <a href="https://www.smh.com.au/national/nsw/sydney-businessman-given-travel-permit-to-pick-up-a-luxury-yacht-20200821-p55o8s.html">104,785 travel exemption requests</a>. Of these, 34,379 were granted a discretionary exemption. Some perhaps more discretionary than others - entrepreneur Jost Stollmann was granted an <a href="https://www.smh.com.au/national/nsw/sydney-businessman-given-travel-permit-to-pick-up-a-luxury-yacht-20200821-p55o8s.html">exemption</a> to travel overseas to pick up his new luxury yacht. </p>
<h2>The way we think about travel needs to change</h2>
<p>Significant Australia’s diplomatic resources have been going into supporting Australians overseas during COVID-19. In July, the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade reported <a href="https://www.themandarin.com.au/136103-more-than-80-of-dfat-staff-supported-covid-19-response-effort/">80% of its staff</a> took part in the response effort. </p>
<p>Secretary Frances Adamson has <a href="https://beta.dfat.gov.au/news/speech/making-good-decisions-time-overload-frances-adamson">also noted</a> her department’s approach to COVID-19 had to go “well beyond what’s written in our consular charter”. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Young woman taking a selfie against Russian skyline." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/355208/original/file-20200827-16-yn31u8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/355208/original/file-20200827-16-yn31u8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/355208/original/file-20200827-16-yn31u8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/355208/original/file-20200827-16-yn31u8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/355208/original/file-20200827-16-yn31u8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/355208/original/file-20200827-16-yn31u8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/355208/original/file-20200827-16-yn31u8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Pre-COVID, there were more than one million Australians living and working overseas.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">www.shutterstock.com</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Given the range of pressing <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-china-us-rivalry-is-not-a-new-cold-war-it-is-way-more-complex-and-could-last-much-longer-144912">foreign policy issues</a> at the moment, a serious question is how much of the Department of Foreign Affairs’ time and attention should be spent on consular services? What is being lost in other diplomatic efforts trying to get Australians home? </p>
<p>Australians need to grapple with the idea that the government doesn’t have to “get them back” if they travel overseas (even if it wants to). And under Australian law, we don’t have a “right” to leave the country. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/how-covid-19-could-impact-travel-for-years-to-come-142971">How COVID-19 could impact travel for years to come</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>We don’t know how long these COVID changes will last - particularly if efforts to <a href="https://theconversation.com/creating-a-covid-19-vaccine-is-only-the-first-step-itll-take-years-to-manufacture-and-distribute-144352">create a vaccine</a> are not successful. So, the way we think of travel and our risk calculations may unfortunately need to change. This might result in the biggest shift in our travel mindset since the 1950s, when international travel opened up to ordinary Australians.</p>
<p>With rising awareness of <a href="https://davidsuzuki.org/what-you-can-do/air-travel-climate-change/">climate impacts of travel</a>, this may not be a wholly negative development. But a deeper conversation is still required about the right to freedom of movement for Australian citizens.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/144862/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Susan Harris Rimmer receives funding from the Australian Research Council. She is affiliated with the International Women's Development Agency and Chatham House (UK). </span></em></p>Australia is a nation of enthusiastic travellers. But coronavirus has radically changed our capacity to go and be overseas.Susan Harris Rimmer, Professor and Director of the Policy Innovation Hub, Griffith Business School, Griffith UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1334282020-03-18T21:22:14Z2020-03-18T21:22:14ZCoronavirus: Canada-U.S. border closure, other travel restrictions undermine our values<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/321431/original/file-20200318-1977-q1tw0p.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=9%2C155%2C6480%2C4086&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">A British Columbia motorist approaches the U.S. port of entry into Blaine, Wash., at a very quiet Douglas-Peace Arch border crossing on the day Ottawa and Washington announced the Canada-U.S. border will be closed to non-essential traffic because of the COVID-19 pandemic.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">THE CANADIAN PRESS/Darryl Dyck</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Canada’s response to restricting access to the country by non-citizens has changed rapidly since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, culminating with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau finally announcing <a href="https://pm.gc.ca/en/news/readouts/2020/03/18/prime-minister-justin-trudeau-speaks-president-united-states-america">a closure of the Canada-U.S. border to “non-essential travel” while still allowing food, goods and medical supplies to cross</a>.</p>
<p>The effective closure of the border comes two days after Trudeau announced <a href="https://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/trudeau-closes-canada-border-citizens-69625654">Canada would restrict entry to anyone but Americans</a>. Now they too are included.</p>
<p>Although Canada was, in many ways, <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/article/coronavirus-travel-restrictions.html">late among nations in closing its borders to non-citizens</a>, it was still a surprising move. </p>
<p>Days before the border was closed for non-essential travel, Health Minister Patty Hajdu said there was no evidence to suggest travel restrictions were effective and that <a href="https://www.thestar.com/politics/federal/2020/03/12/after-trump-targets-europe-canadian-officials-say-closing-the-border-wont-stop-covid-19.html">Canada would not implement them.</a> Trudeau stressed the importance of focusing Canada’s efforts on <a href="https://globalnews.ca/news/6656297/canadian-government-coronavirus-response/">scientifically supported methods of slowing the disease’s spread.</a></p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1238540675781660672"}"></div></p>
<p>In a matter of days, that stance of open borders and scientific evidence has shifted. It bears repeating that Canada is not alone. As the epicentre of the coronavirus pandemic jumps from China to Europe, many <a href="https://www.internationalsos.com/pandemic-sites/pandemic/home/2019-ncov/ncov-travel-restrictions-flight-operations-and-screening">countries have put up travel restrictions</a>. These restrictions assume that <a href="https://globalnews.ca/news/6665703/coronavirus-travel-ban/">viruses can be contained at ports of entry</a>. </p>
<p>This is not true — and it is especially false after the virus is already present in the isolating country.</p>
<h2>Travel restrictions and border closures</h2>
<p>The World Health Organization advises nations <a href="https://www.who.int/news-room/articles-detail/updated-who-recommendations-for-international-traffic-in-relation-to-covid-19-outbreak/">against setting travel restrictions or closing borders as methods of combating the coronavirus outbreak.</a> Restricting movement between countries that are already diagnosing cases is <a href="https://www.theglobeandmail.com/canada/article-canadas-decision-against-travel-bans-tied-to-coronavirus-backed-by/">ineffective in offsetting an outbreak of the virus</a>.</p>
<blockquote>
<p>“<em>In general, evidence shows that restricting the movement of people and goods during public health emergencies is ineffective in most situations and may divert resources from other interventions.</em>” - The World Health Organization</p>
</blockquote>
<p>For nations already caught up in the xenophobic politics of populism, however, this virus is understood as a migration problem. Some of our <a href="https://doi.org/10.1111/soc4.12359">academic work</a> explores how nations create in-groups by first creating dangerous outliers.</p>
<p>Governments have been handling border closures and travel restrictions in different ways, <a href="https://carnegieendowment.org/2020/03/05/resisting-call-of-nativism-what-u.s.-political-parties-can-learn-from-other-democracies-pub-81204">but we can see disparities in the ways that political parties and politicians work to convince electorates that they are legitimate authorities and in control</a>.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/coronavirus-weekly-expert-analysis-from-the-conversation-global-network-133646">Coronavirus weekly: expert analysis from The Conversation global network</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>Yet, in developed states with <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/0145935X.2017.1277125">political factions suspicious towards migrants</a>, closing borders and even restricting the travel of nationals may be attractive. For countries where public health infrastructures become inadequate, social structures become limited and alternatives are sorely lacking, closing the borders turns attention outwards.</p>
<p>When there is division within a country, <a href="https://www.nationalobserver.com/2020/03/16/news/trudeau-says-border-closures-mandatory-screening-discussion">the pressure to close borders may prove too great for even the most globally minded leaders</a>. Trudeau’s <a href="https://www.thestar.com/politics/federal/2020/03/13/justin-trudeau-wont-close-the-border-at-least-for-now.html">initial hesitation</a> to prohibit foreign nationals’ travel to Canada may be understood as a wish to prevent our policy from descending into isolationism. Yet, though Canada was among the last to restrict border crossings, we have done so.</p>
<p>The WHO and others have pointed out that travel restrictions not only <a href="https://www.who.int/news-room/articles-detail/updated-who-recommendations-for-international-traffic-in-relation-to-covid-19-outbreak/">divert resources from containment effort, they have real human costs in themselves.</a> </p>
<p>For example, the world’s 10th largest economy, Texas, can expect travel and economic interruptions caused by limitations on trade between the U.S. and Mexico. Roughly <a href="https://www.texastribune.org/2020/03/06/experts-say-covid-19-could-hurt-texas-trade-and-border-economy/">one million jobs in Texas are dependent on cross-border trade with Mexico.</a> These economic disruptions will render both Mexicans and Texans poorer, more desperate and sicker — all of which undermine efforts to curtail the spread of COVID-19. </p>
<h2>Travel restrictions and nationalism</h2>
<p>Closing borders is clearly not entirely about science; rather, travel bans are assertions of nationalistic and isolationist power. </p>
<p>President Donald Trump used his national address on March 11 to <a href="https://www.vox.com/2020/3/11/21176001/trump-coronavirus-speech-travel-ban-transcript/">suggest how other nations had caused the threatening “foreign virus.”</a> In that address, he instituted a ban on all travellers from Europe into the United States, excepting returning Americans. Noticeably, these types of restrictions — the “Muslim travel ban,” <a href="https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2019/11/27/immigrants-temporary-protected-status-in-us/">the end of Temporary Protected Status for some nationalities</a> — <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2020/02/trump-response-coronavirus/606610/">have been a key component of Trump’s larger isolationist agenda.</a></p>
<p>The 21st century may be <a href="https://www.nationalgeographic.com/magazine/2019/08/we-all-are-migrants-in-the-21st-century/">the century of the migrant</a>. The crises of global economic volatility, climate change, civil unrest, organized crime and international conflict have <a href="https://www.npr.org/sections/parallels/2015/09/02/436905795/why-are-migrants-surging-into-europe-now">conspired to put a record number of people on the road.</a> Mass movement across borders means that the relatively privileged native-born citizens of the Global North <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2018/06/20/business/economy/immigration-economic-impact.html">now live beside</a> a large number of immigrants, and they do not seem to always like it. </p>
<h2>Populism inside the pandemic</h2>
<p>We had seen <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/statistics-canada-2017-hate-crime-numbers-1.4925399">rising rates</a> <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/0145935X.2017.1277125">of hate crimes and anti-migrant sentiment</a> before anyone had heard of COVID-19. In New York City, for example, Gov. Andrew Cuomo expressed “disgust” in response to <a href="https://nypost.com/2020/03/14/nyc-human-rights-commission-probing-reports-of-coronavirus-related-racism/">a rash of racist behaviour affecting Chinatown businesses.</a>. Since the pandemic was declared, our <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/racism-coronavirus-canada-1.5449023">worst racist instincts</a> appear to be coming to the fore.</p>
<p>Protecting vulnerable people has always been and will remain consistent with Canadian principles of dignity and inclusion across lines of nativity, racialization and ethnicity. Canada has now moved away from that resolve, and into lockstep with the rest of the world. Rather than uniting across national lines to confront a common threat, we are shutting out the world in response to a threat more conveniently cast as external and foreign.</p>
<p>COVID-19 is a medical challenge, certainly.</p>
<p>It is also a social and political event whose cause, trajectory and long-term ramifications say more about our institutions than about the illness. Canada will learn important lessons in evolving health care systems, social inclusion structures and national resilience. After the pandemic, Canada will need to reconcile the inclusive image we worked to construct with the reality of our closed borders.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/133428/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Canada’s ban on foreign travellers is not consistent with the science of the pandemic or Canada’s own values of inclusion and openness to outsiders.Natalie Delia Deckard, Assistant Professor, Department of Sociology, Anthropology and Criminology, University of WindsorDara Vosoughi, Masters of Arts, Criminology, University of WindsorLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1327402020-03-18T17:33:48Z2020-03-18T17:33:48ZCoronavirus quarantines and your legal rights: 4 questions answered<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/320666/original/file-20200316-53578-1gzij9s.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C2991%2C1944&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">A woman at O'Hare International Airport in Chicago gives the thumbs-up upon arrival from an overseas flight. </span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/travelers-arrive-in-the-international-terminal-at-ohare-news-photo/1212589345?adppopup=true">Getty Images / Scott Olson</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>The unknown is frightening. And with the spread of a deadly and communicable disease – the coronavirus is both – individual liberties may be temporarily sidelined to protect the larger community. </p>
<p>Indeed, history has shown us that whenever the United States has encountered a biological threat, the <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK54163/">government invariably weighs individual freedoms against the compelling need to protect</a> the rest of us from a widespread epidemic. More often than not, <a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/SB124165802466994331">a clampdown on civil liberties</a> occurs. </p>
<p>As a <a href="https://law.uoregon.edu/people/directory/latishan">disaster law scholar</a>, I study vulnerable populations during various stages of disaster response. In the age of coronavirus, people are asking me questions about their rights. Here are some answers.</p>
<h2>1. I had contact with someone who has the coronavirus. Am I required to go into quarantine or isolation?</h2>
<p>The answer: It depends. The Constitution <a href="https://constitutioncenter.org/interactive-constitution/amendment/amendment-x">gives states the power</a> to police citizens for the health, safety and welfare of those within its borders. This means states have the right to quarantine an individual, community or area to protect the surrounding community. With testing supplies in limited quantity and high demand, citizens are strongly encouraged to self-isolate. However, if you are a citizen who came into contact with a person with the coronavirus in a different country and then flew home, CDC officials at the airport have the right to detain you and force you into quarantine. </p>
<p>That said, quarantine and isolation laws <a href="https://www.ncsl.org/research/health/state-quarantine-and-isolation-statutes.aspx">vary widely</a>, as do the consequences of breaking them. </p>
<p>In some states – including California, Florida and Louisiana – breaking an order of quarantine or isolation can result in misdemeanor criminal charges. Jail time could be up to a year, along with penalties ranging from US$50 to $1,000.</p>
<p>Those under quarantine can have visitors, but physical interaction may be limited to prevent the spread of the disease. Limitations, depending on your state or local regulation, can include confining you to a specific physical space and barring physical touching, including hugging and kissing. </p>
<p>Quarantined individuals <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/12/us/coronavirus-quarantine-questions.html">do have the right to challenge the quarantine order</a>.</p>
<p>You can find a list of state laws about quarantine and isolation on the National Conference of State Legislatures <a href="https://www.ncsl.org/research/health/state-quarantine-and-isolation-statutes.aspx">website</a>. </p>
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<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/320670/original/file-20200316-53523-1ug7z8z.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/320670/original/file-20200316-53523-1ug7z8z.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/320670/original/file-20200316-53523-1ug7z8z.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/320670/original/file-20200316-53523-1ug7z8z.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/320670/original/file-20200316-53523-1ug7z8z.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/320670/original/file-20200316-53523-1ug7z8z.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/320670/original/file-20200316-53523-1ug7z8z.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">Federal, state and local governments have the power to enforce quarantines.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/photo/man-with-mask-looking-out-of-window-royalty-free-image/1212038213?adppopup=true">Getty Images / Justin Paget</a></span>
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<h2>2. Who can enforce quarantines?</h2>
<p>All three levels of government have the power to quarantine. </p>
<p>States can quarantine citizens who present with symptoms within their borders. Local governments can quarantine smaller communities or areas of individuals that present with the coronavirus symptoms. The federal government too has responsibilities; <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/commerce-clause">it has the power</a> to prevent the entry and spread of communicable diseases from foreign countries. </p>
<p>And the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention <a href="https://www.cdc.gov/quarantine/aboutlawsregulationsquarantineisolation.html">has the authority</a> to detain and examine anyone arriving in the U.S. suspected of carrying the coronavirus. That includes passengers from airplanes, motor vehicles or ships.</p>
<p>The CDC can also issue a <a href="https://www.cdc.gov/quarantine/aboutlawsregulationsquarantineisolation.html">federal isolation or quarantine order</a>, which allows state public health authorities to seek help from local law enforcement to administer and enforce the federal quarantine orders. </p>
<h2>3. Under what circumstances can I be tested for coronavirus?</h2>
<p>At this time, no legislation has been passed to create a legal right to testing. </p>
<p><a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/04/health/coronavirus-test-demand.html">You must contact your doctor to get approval</a> to be tested. If you don’t have a doctor, contact your public health authority. Currently not everyone can be tested due to the shortage of tests. </p>
<p>The CDC website bases testing criteria <a href="https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/symptoms-testing/testing.html">on the following ailments</a>:
You have a fever; you develop virus symptoms; you recently traveled to an area with an ongoing spread of the virus; or you have been in contact with someone known to have the coronavirus. </p>
<p>But with the <a href="https://www.nhpr.org/post/you-have-fever-and-dry-cough-now-what#stream/0">current shortage of tests</a>, you still may not be able to be tested. As testing becomes available, the restrictions on testing may also change. </p>
<h2>4. My state has declared a state of emergency; will that affect my rights?</h2>
<p>According to <a href="https://www.nga.org/coronavirus/#states">the National Governors Association</a>, as of March 17, “State emergency/public health emergency declarations have been issued for each state and territory, as well as the District of Columbia.” </p>
<p>A <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/california-washington-state-of-emergency-coronavirus-what-it-means-2020-3">state of emergency</a> allows a state to activate its emergency or disaster plan, along with the accompanying resources. It also allows states to help with local response efforts, including providing money for personnel and supplies. </p>
<p>The state of emergency can affect your rights because <a href="https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2020/03/15/coronavirus-bars-restaurants-closed-states/5055634002/">states have used emergency declarations</a> to close or restrict the hours of private businesses, close schools and public buildings, and enforce curfews for citizens. </p>
<p>There are federal-, state- and local-level declarations of emergency. </p>
<p>The power to declare a federal state of emergency is <a href="https://www.fema.gov/robert-t-stafford-disaster-relief-and-emergency-assistance-act-public-law-93-288-amended">given to the president under the Stafford Act</a> and the <a href="https://uscode.house.gov/view.xhtml?path=/prelim@title50/chapter34&edition=prelim">National Emergencies Act</a>. </p>
<p>In <a href="https://drive.google.com/file/d/1AcKOePvhmBpuNuaBQq7yZ37E2Sog4tUe/view">Oregon, the governor used its state of emergency</a>, <a href="https://ktvz.com/health/2020/03/08/oregon-presumptive-covid-19-cases-double-to-14-gov-brown-declares-state-of-emergency/">according to the Associated Press</a>, to activate “reserves of volunteer emergency health care personnel, especially important in rural areas,” develop guidelines for private businesses and aid employees by defining the coronavirus as a valid cause for sick leave. The addition of the sick leave definition will allow employees to take leave to care for their own sickness or for an immediate family member. </p>
<p>[<em>Get facts about coronavirus and the latest research.</em> <a href="https://theconversation.com/us/newsletters?utm_source=TCUS&utm_medium=inline-link&utm_campaign=newsletter-text&utm_content=upper-coronavirus-facts">Sign up for our newsletter.</a>]</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/132740/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Latisha Nixon-Jones does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>An expert explains how your individual rights could be affected during the coronavirus crisis.Latisha Nixon-Jones, Visiting Legal Research and Writing Professor, University of OregonLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1322622020-02-21T01:56:11Z2020-02-21T01:56:11ZVIDEO: Michelle Grattan on an extended travel ban, a royal commission, and zero emissions by 2050<p>Michelle Grattan talks with Assistant Professor Caroline Fisher about the week in politics, including the extension of the coronavirus travel ban, the royal commission into the bushfires, and labor’s stance on a compulsory superannuation guarantee and zero emissions by 2050.</p>
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<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Michelle Grattan does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Michelle Grattan on the week in politics, including the travel ban, the royal commission into the bushfires, and labor’s stance on a compulsory superannuation guarantee and zero emissions by 2050.Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of CanberraLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1321752020-02-20T03:29:57Z2020-02-20T03:29:57ZAustralian unis may need to cut staff and research if government extends coronavirus travel ban<p>The <a href="https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/australia-expected-to-extend-coronavirus-travel-ban-for-another-week-20200219-p542bo.html">Australian government</a> will soon decide whether it will extend its ban on travellers from China for another week. </p>
<p>The Department of Home Affairs has already <a href="https://www.homeaffairs.gov.au/news-media/current-alerts/novel-coronavirus">extended the original two week travel ban</a> (that <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-china-health-australia/australia-bars-entry-to-foreign-nationals-traveling-from-mainland-china-idUSKBN1ZV3F1">began on February 1</a>) by one week.</p>
<p>Anyone who has left or transited mainland China within the previous 14 days (with some exceptions including Australians citizens) will be <a href="https://www.homeaffairs.gov.au/news-media/current-alerts/novel-coronavirus">denied entry</a> into Australia until February 22.</p>
<p>But with about <a href="https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/coronavirus-cases/">2,000 new cases</a> of the coronavirus being confirmed every day, the ban could well be extended even further. </p>
<p>More than 100,000 international students are <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-02-19/coronavirus-travel-ban-hits-universities-students-stuck-in-china/11975938">estimated to be stuck</a> in China, unable to start their academic year in Australia. </p>
<p>With the substantial loss of revenue from these students, universities will likely need to make cuts to their staff and research budgets.</p>
<h2>How the travel ban affects universities</h2>
<p>The number of international students studying at Australian universities has increased dramatically in the past two decades. International student contributions extend beyond fees. These students spend money on accommodation, food and other experiences while they are here.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/3-ways-the-coronavirus-outbreak-will-affect-international-students-and-how-unis-can-help-131195">3 ways the coronavirus outbreak will affect international students and how unis can help</a>
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<p>In 2018, international students contributed A$32 billion to the Australian economy.
One third of that – <a href="https://www.abs.gov.au/AUSSTATS/abs@.nsf/DetailsPage/5368.0.55.0032017-18?OpenDocument">$11 billion</a> – was from the <a href="https://docs.education.gov.au/node/53021">160,000 students</a> from China who studied in Australia that year.</p>
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<p>Some Australian universities are more exposed to the Chinese student market than others. The University of Sydney took in about A$750 million from international students in 2017 (<a href="https://docs.education.gov.au/node/52466">the latest year the data were available</a>).</p>
<p>We have calculated two-thirds of that – about $500 million – came from international students from China. That same year, the University of Sydney had an operating surplus of $200 million.</p>
<p>The figure below shows the ten Australian universities with the highest revenue from Chinese international students. All these universities had an operating surplus in 2017.</p>
<p>The <a href="https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/universities-have-12-billion-war-chest-to-confront-coronavirus-crisis-20200219-p542c0.html">current reserves</a> of these ten universities reportedly range from $48 million to $3.9 billion.</p>
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<p>These universities are in good financial position to weather the storm. But whether university revenues are cut by a few weeks, a semester, or longer, they will inevitably look at reducing costs. </p>
<p>With materially fewer students to teach, they will look to reduce classes and cut teaching staff. Around <a href="https://grattan.edu.au/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/907-Mapping-Australian-higher-education-2018.pdf">23% of their full time employees</a> are casuals without employment security.</p>
<p>Cutting the hours of these employees would be the easiest way for universities to mitigate the hit to the bottom line. </p>
<p>But cutting costs can’t fill the hole: the revenue from foreign students substantially exceeds the costs of teaching them. </p>
<p>Australian universities generated a surplus of <a href="https://grattan.edu.au/wp-content/uploads/2015/10/831-Cash-nexus-report.pdf">about A$1.2 billion on international onshore students in 2013</a>. International student revenues have almost doubled since then, so the surplus budgeted for 2020 before coronavirus hit would have been a lot higher.</p>
<p>This loss of revenue will also have flow on effects for research, <a href="https://grattan.edu.au/wp-content/uploads/2015/10/831-Cash-nexus-report.pdf%20%20%20https://grattan.edu.au/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/demand_driven_facts_figures_SLNSW_13Feb.pdf">20% of which is funded</a> by student fees. </p>
<h2>The government should lift the funding cap</h2>
<p>Universities are doing what they can to accommodate students still in China. Monash University has <a href="https://www.monash.edu/news/novel-corona-virus-fact-sheet">delayed its teaching semester</a> by a week to March 9, and will conduct its first week entirely online. </p>
<p>The <a href="https://sydney.edu.au/study/coronavirus-infection-university-of-sydney-advice.html">University of Sydney</a> will start on February 24 as normal, but it will delay some postgraduate business courses that have high international student numbers.</p>
<p>Universities are also offering online-only alternatives to international students for first-semester subjects.</p>
<p>But delayed start dates will work only if the travel ban is lifted in the coming weeks. Online-only study deprives international students of the campus-and-country experience they have paid for, so that option may not prove attractive. </p>
<p>And the problem will be far larger if this cohort of Chinese international students don’t come at all, instead choosing to study at home or elsewhere abroad.</p>
<p>All of this comes at a bad time for Australia’s university sector. While the Department of Home Affairs is restricting its access to international students this academic year, the Department of Education is restricting its access to domestic students next year and beyond.</p>
<p>The Commonwealth government <a href="https://grattan.edu.au/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/demand_driven_facts_figures_SLNSW_13Feb.pdf">effectively ended</a> the demand-driven funding system at the end of 2017. During the years the model was operational, universities could enrol unlimited numbers of bachelor-degree students into any discipline other than medicine and be paid for every one of them.</p>
<p>In 2017, the <a href="https://theconversation.com/demand-driven-funding-for-universities-is-frozen-what-does-this-mean-and-should-the-policy-be-restored-116060">government put a freeze</a> on domestic bachelor places for two years, with population-linked adjustments from 2020 for universities that met certain performance criteria.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/demand-driven-funding-for-universities-is-frozen-what-does-this-mean-and-should-the-policy-be-restored-116060">Demand-driven funding for universities is frozen. What does this mean and should the policy be restored?</a>
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<p>By the luck of a demographic slump, the number of people finishing year 12 in Australia <a href="https://andrewnorton.net.au/2020/02/18/how-much-did-the-demand-drive-funding-freeze-save-the-government-in-2018-and-cost-the-unis/">has been flat</a>, and so the freeze has been of little consequence so far.</p>
<p>But that will change in the coming years. More domestic students will be knocking on the doors of cash-strapped universities. </p>
<p>The freeze means universities desperately needing revenue will lose many school leavers who would otherwise have studied at university under the demand driven system.</p>
<p>The Commonwealth government can’t fix an international pandemic. But it can lift the cap on domestic students.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/132175/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Grattan Institute began with contributions to its endowment of $15 million from each of the Federal and Victorian Governments, $4 million from BHP Billiton, and $1 million from NAB. In order to safeguard its independence, Grattan Institute’s board controls this endowment. The funds are invested and contribute to funding Grattan Institute's activities. Grattan Institute also receives funding from corporates, foundations, and individuals to support its general activities, as disclosed on its website.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Will Mackey does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The University of Sydney took in about A$750 million from international students in 2017. Two-thirds of that – about $500 million – came from international students from China.John Daley, Chief Executive Officer, Grattan InstituteWill Mackey, Associate, Grattan InstituteLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1311302020-02-06T13:45:06Z2020-02-06T13:45:06ZThe 6 countries in Trump’s new travel ban pose little threat to US national security<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/313845/original/file-20200205-149802-yx1arb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">The new ban applies to citizens of Eritrea, Kyrgyzstan, Myanmar, Nigeria, Sudan and Tanzania.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/american-flags-flag-usa-located-airport-455640031">Ingus Kruklitis/Shutterstock.com</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Over the past two decades, how many people have been killed in the U.S. by extremists from the six countries on the Trump administration’s <a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/proclamation-improving-enhanced-vetting-capabilities-processes-detecting-attempted-entry/">new travel ban</a> list? </p>
<p>The answer is zero, according to <a href="http://kurzman.unc.edu/muslim-american-terrorism/annual-report/">data I have collected</a> from Department of Justice records and other sources. Immigrants from these countries constitute less than 1% of <a href="https://trac.syr.edu/tracreports/bulletins/terrorism/monthlysep19/gui/">terrorism cases</a> in the United States, and none of the cases in the last two years.</p>
<p>The same is true for the <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-travel-ban-in-numbers-why-families-and-refugees-lose-big-99064">original travel bans</a> imposed in 2017. There were, and still are, zero fatalities in the United States caused by extremists from the countries on those lists, too.</p>
<h2>One attempted attack in decades</h2>
<p>Under the <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/01/31/us/politics/trump-travel-ban.html">new ban</a>, which begins on Feb. 22, citizens of Eritrea, Kyrgyzstan, Myanmar, Nigeria, Sudan and Tanzania will no longer be able to apply for immigrant visas. </p>
<p><a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/proclamation-improving-enhanced-vetting-capabilities-processes-detecting-attempted-entry/">The White House says</a> these countries “must satisfy basic security conditions outlined by America’s law-enforcement and intelligence professionals” in order for the ban to be lifted. </p>
<p>However, there is no evidence that immigrants from these six countries pose a national security threat to the United States.</p>
<p>In fact, only one citizen from any of these countries has attempted a terrorist attack in the United States: 11 years ago, a man from Nigeria tried but <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/topic/person/umar-farouk-abdulmutallab">failed to ignite explosives in his underwear</a> as his flight approached Detroit. Nobody was injured, apart from the would-be bomber. </p>
<p>In recent years, Nigeria has “actively cooperated with the United States and other international partners” to prevent further attacks, according to <a href="https://www.state.gov/reports/country-reports-on-terrorism-2018/">a State Department report</a> last October. </p>
<p>The new ban wouldn’t have stopped the underwear bomber, in any case, because he was traveling on a tourist visa, and the new ban applies only to immigrant visas.</p>
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<h2>Immigrant extremism versus domestic extremism</h2>
<p>Donald Trump’s presidential campaign and many of his administration’s policies have played on the trope of threats posed by <a href="https://vimeo.com/262486734">refugees</a>, <a href="https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3502556">asylum seekers</a> and other <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/1478929919865131">migrants</a>. </p>
<p>However, the administration’s own security agencies view homegrown and domestic terrorism as a greater threat than extremist violence by foreigners. </p>
<p>“We now assess the most predominant terrorist threat to the Homeland to emanate from U.S.-based lone actors,” the acting director of the National Counterterrorism Center <a href="https://www.hsgac.senate.gov/imo/media/doc/Testimony-Travers-2019-11-05.pdf">testified</a> to Congress in November.</p>
<p>For more than a decade, under three administrations, <a href="https://www.fbi.gov/news/testimony">the FBI’s annual briefing</a> on worldwide terrorist threats has rated American extremism as a greater concern than foreign operatives. The director of the FBI repeated this point in <a href="https://www.fbi.gov/news/testimony/fbi-oversight-020520">congressional testimony</a> several days after the new travel ban was announced.</p>
<p>The travel ban would not have prevented the country’s deadliest <a href="https://www.start.umd.edu/gtd/search/Results.aspx?page=1&casualties_type=b&casualties_max=&start_yearonly=2017&end_yearonly=2018&dtp2=all&country=217&charttype=line&chart=overtime&expanded=no&ob=TotalNumberOfFatalities&od=desc#results-tabl">terrorist attacks</a> in recent years, which were committed by right-wing Americans, not immigrants: the anti-immigrant extremist who killed 22 shoppers <a href="https://www.npr.org/2019/10/10/769013051/el-paso-walmart-shooting-suspect-pleads-not-guilty">at a store in El Paso</a>; the white supremacist who killed 17 students and teachers at <a href="https://www.cbsnews.com/feature/parkland-florida-school-shooting/">a school in Parkland, Florida</a>; or the anti-Semite who killed 11 worshipers <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/08/26/us/pittsburgh-synagogue-shooting-death-penalty.html">at a synagogue in Pittsburgh</a>.</p>
<p>The travel ban also would not have prevented the most recent attack by a foreign national – the Saudi officer who killed three sailors <a href="https://www.fbi.gov/news/stories/naval-air-station-pensacola-shooting-called-act-of-terrorism-011320">at a naval air base in Pensacola</a>. The officer did not arrive on an immigrant visa, and the ban specifically exempts Saudi Arabia.</p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/313838/original/file-20200205-149796-jrt9vt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/313838/original/file-20200205-149796-jrt9vt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/313838/original/file-20200205-149796-jrt9vt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/313838/original/file-20200205-149796-jrt9vt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/313838/original/file-20200205-149796-jrt9vt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/313838/original/file-20200205-149796-jrt9vt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/313838/original/file-20200205-149796-jrt9vt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/313838/original/file-20200205-149796-jrt9vt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Demonstrators at the Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport protest the Trump administration’s first travel ban in January 2017.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.apimages.com/metadata/Index/Trump-Travel-Ban-Atlanta/bac2d38253a94dbab6af1bf31f6b0366/61/0">AP Photo/Branden Camp</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Fanning fears</h2>
<p>National security has a special status in government policy – policymakers are given extra leeway on security issues in order to safeguard against existential threats. </p>
<p>A generation ago, during the Cold War, those threats involved nuclear missiles and million-man armies. After 9/11, the primary threat was mass casualty attacks by nongovernmental organizations. Today, fortunately, those threats have diminished to the point that the latest <a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/wp-content/uploads/2017/12/NSS-Final-12-18-2017-0905-2.pdf">National Security Strategy</a> of the United States focuses on lone individuals with small arms, homemade explosives, vehicles and knives. </p>
<p>This violence is a concern, but not a leading threat to public safety. Terrorists were responsible for only one-fifth of 1% of the 290,000 murders in the United States since 9/11, according to data from the <a href="https://www.start.umd.edu/gtd/">Global Terrorism Database</a> and the FBI’s <a href="https://www.fbi.gov/services/cjis/ucr/publications">Uniform Crime Reports</a>. The government’s counterterrorism dragnet, involving thousands of agents over many years, has discovered <a href="https://trac.syr.edu/tracreports/bulletins/terrorism/monthlysep19/gui/">fewer and fewer plots</a> in recent years.</p>
<p>Still, many Americans do not feel safe. Half of the respondents in <a href="https://news.gallup.com/poll/267383/americans-equally-worried-mass-shooting-terrorism.aspx">recent</a> <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/2378023119856825">surveys</a> <a href="https://blogs.chapman.edu/wilkinson/2018/10/16/americas-top-fears-2018/">say</a> they worry about being the victim of a terrorist attack.</p>
<p>Trump’s new travel ban asks Americans to believe that they will be more secure without immigration from Nigeria and five other countries. In my view, that is an insult both to those countries and to the country that calls itself the home of the brave.</p>
<p>[ <em><a href="https://theconversation.com/us/newsletters?utm_source=TCUS&utm_medium=inline-link&utm_campaign=newsletter-text&utm_content=expertise">Expertise in your inbox. Sign up for The Conversation’s newsletter and get a digest of academic takes on today’s news, every day.</a></em> ]</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/131130/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Charles Kurzman received funding from the National Institute of Justice for early phases of his research on violent extremism.</span></em></p>Immigrants from Eritrea, Kyrgyzstan, Myanmar, Nigeria, Sudan and Tanzania constitute less than 1% of terrorism cases in the United States, and none of the cases in the last two years.Charles Kurzman, Professor of Sociology, University of North Carolina at Chapel HillLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/990642018-07-11T11:15:07Z2018-07-11T11:15:07ZThe travel ban in numbers: Why families and refugees lose big<p>On June 16, the <a href="https://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/17pdf/17-965_h315.pdf">U.S. Supreme Court</a> lifted the 9th Circuit’s nationwide injunction against the <a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/presidential-proclamation-enhancing-vetting-capabilities-processes-detecting-attempted-entry-united-states-terrorists-public-safety-threats/">third version</a> of President Donald Trump’s travel ban. This ruling marks Trump’s first court victory since he issued <a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/executive-order-protecting-nation-foreign-terrorist-entry-united-states/">the original</a> travel ban back in January 2017. </p>
<p>Thousands now face indefinite separation from family members from the affected countries. Thousands more will be denied safe harbor from persecution. </p>
<p>Trump asserts the travel ban is necessary to protect national security. This claim is contested by many, including 26 retired generals and admirals, who filed an <a href="https://www.supremecourt.gov/DocketPDF/17/17-965/41713/20180330120220844_17-965%20Retired%20Generals%20and%20Admirals%20of%20U.S.%20Armed%20Forces%20Amicus%20Brief.pdf">amicus brief</a> urging the U.S. Supreme Court to invalidate the travel ban. </p>
<p>As a researcher <a href="https://law.ucdavis.edu/faculty/aldana/">who studies the effect of U.S. immigration laws and policies on human rights</a>, I consider it important to explain the significant numeric scale of the ban’s impact on refugees and U.S. families. </p>
<p>Refugees and family members are not the only categories of foreign nationals from the enumerated countries in the travel ban who will be denied entry. Students, tourists, business travelers and workers will also be turned back. But refugees and family members raise the most compelling human rights and humanitarian reasons for people to care. </p>
<p><iframe id="tcVsw" class="tc-infographic-datawrapper" src="https://datawrapper.dwcdn.net/tcVsw/1/" height="400px" width="100%" style="border: none" frameborder="0"></iframe></p>
<h2>Travel ban 3.0, explained</h2>
<p>The three separate travel bans sought to deny U.S. entry to nationals from a total of 10 nations.</p>
<p>Today, <a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/presidential-proclamation-enhancing-vetting-capabilities-processes-detecting-attempted-entry-united-states-terrorists-public-safety-threats/">seven nations</a> are still subject to the travel ban: Iran, Libya, North Korea, Somalia, Syria, Venezuela and Yemen. </p>
<p><iframe id="vB4aL" class="tc-infographic-datawrapper" src="https://datawrapper.dwcdn.net/vB4aL/2/" height="400px" width="100%" style="border: none" frameborder="0"></iframe></p>
<p>Travel restrictions vary by country. The least restrictive measures apply to <a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/presidential-proclamation-enhancing-vetting-capabilities-processes-detecting-attempted-entry-united-states-terrorists-public-safety-threats/">Venezuela</a>. Only certain government officials and their immediate family members are indefinitely suspended from travel on short-term business or tourism. The effect of these unusual restrictions are likely to be minuscule and will not impact family unification or refugee admissions. For this reason, I didn’t include Venezuela’s numbers in my analysis.</p>
<p>All other nations are subject to indefinite bans on travel for permanent immigration to the U.S. This ban applies to immigrants who want to unite with family in the U.S. and refugees. Each nation also faces different travel restrictions for temporary immigration. The most restrictive travel restrictions apply to <a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/presidential-proclamation-enhancing-vetting-capabilities-processes-detecting-attempted-entry-united-states-terrorists-public-safety-threats/">North Korea and Syria</a>. All temporary immigration from these countries is suspended indefinitely. For <a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/presidential-proclamation-enhancing-vetting-capabilities-processes-detecting-attempted-entry-united-states-terrorists-public-safety-threats/">Libya and Yemen</a>, only temporary travelers for business and tourism are suspended indefinitely. For <a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/presidential-proclamation-enhancing-vetting-capabilities-processes-detecting-attempted-entry-united-states-terrorists-public-safety-threats/">Iran</a>, all temporary immigration is suspended except students and exchange visitors. Finally, for <a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/presidential-proclamation-enhancing-vetting-capabilities-processes-detecting-attempted-entry-united-states-terrorists-public-safety-threats/">Somalia</a>, all temporary migration is not suspended but subjected to additional scrutiny. </p>
<p>The travel ban does allow case-by-case exemptions for certain people if admission is found to be in the national interest. This includes lawful permanent residents, asylum-seekers, refugees and students, among others. In his dissent, however, <a href="https://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/17pdf/17-965_h315.pdf">Justice Stephen Breyer</a> attempted to document how many waivers to the travel ban had been granted, concluding that the government applied the waiver in such a tiny percentage of eligible visas as to render it meaningless. </p>
<h2>The measurable impact on family immigration</h2>
<p>Family immigration to the U.S. from any single nation is determined by two factors. First, the demand for such visas from existing family members already in the U.S. who can sponsor certain family members. Second, for those <a href="https://travel.state.gov/content/travel/en/legal/visa-law0/visa-bulletin/2018/visa-bulletin-for-july-2018.html">visas that are numerically restricted</a>, the availability of those visas to that nation in a given year. </p>
<p>In general, a nation’s patterns of family immigration tend to remain fairly steady over the years. So it’s possible to estimate, based on recent data from the seven (excluding Venezuela) travel ban nations, approximately how many immigrants seeking to unite with their families will be banned indefinitely from entry into the U.S.</p>
<p><iframe id="MhDpI" class="tc-infographic-datawrapper" src="https://datawrapper.dwcdn.net/MhDpI/3/" height="400px" width="100%" style="border: none" frameborder="0"></iframe></p>
<p>During each of the last three years for which <a href="https://www.dhs.gov/profiles-legal-permanent-residents">detailed profiles are publicly available</a> – 2014 through 2016 – Iran, Libya, North Korea, Somalia, Syria and Yemen sent between 8,000 and over 15,000 parents and children of U.S. citizens. </p>
<p>These same nations also sent between 3,000 and over 7,000 other eligible family members, such as siblings of U.S. citizens and spouses of lawful permanent residents. </p>
<p>Combined, in just three years, more than 35,000 family members from these nations came to unite with their families in the U.S. Among these nations, Iran and Yemen sent the most, followed by Syria and Somalia.</p>
<p>The travel ban also significantly affects family members’ ability to even visit each other in the U.S. Even when the ban was stalled by the courts, the overall <a href="https://www.dhs.gov/profiles-lawful-permanent-residents-2016-country">number of nonimmigrants, or temporary migrants,</a> from these nations significantly decreased. </p>
<p>Iran, for example, has sent by far the largest share of nonimmigrants of any of the travel ban countries in the last decade. In 2016, nearly 30,000 nonimmigrants came to the U.S. from Iran. In 2017, fewer than 20,000 came. </p>
<p><iframe id="MF8Iy" class="tc-infographic-datawrapper" src="https://datawrapper.dwcdn.net/MF8Iy/3/" height="400px" width="100%" style="border: none" frameborder="0"></iframe></p>
<h2>What this means for refugees</h2>
<p><a href="http://reporting.unhcr.org/sites/default/files/gr2017/pdf/GR2017_English_Full_lowres.pdf">According to United Nations</a>, the travel ban affects nations in significant humanitarian crises with substantial flows of refugees. </p>
<p>Syrians are the most affected. This group represents a total 5.5 million refugees, the largest share by far of the world’s overall <a href="http://www.unhcr.org/en-us/figures-at-a-glance.html">25.4 million refugees</a>. But Iran and Somalia each also have nearly 1 million refugees, while Yemen has nearly 300,000 and Libya nearly 100,000. Four of these nations – Iran, Somalia, Syria and Yemen – face <a href="http://www.unhcr.org/globaltrends2016/">protracted refugee crises</a>. Only North Korea reports a low figure of 2,245, although this likely reflects North Koreans’ fear of escaping or reporting their presence when they do. </p>
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<p>A high supply of refugees <a href="https://www.uscis.gov/humanitarian/refugees-asylum/refugees/united-states-refugee-admissions-program-usrap-consultation-worldwide-processing-priorities">doesn’t necessarily translate</a> to high numbers of refugees admitted into the U.S. Still, over the past decade, the U.S. has <a href="https://2009-2017.state.gov/j/prm/releases/statistics/index.htm">consistently offered refugee protection</a> to Iran and Somalia. The peak for both these nations was in 2016, when the U.S. admitted more than 9,000 refugees for each nation. </p>
<p>Since 2015, Syrians also began to receive refugee protection in substantial numbers, with 2016 also being the highest number of 12,587 refugees admitted. </p>
<p>President Trump has reduced the levels of refugee flows into the U.S. to <a href="http://www.wrapsnet.org/admissions-and-arrivals/">historic lows</a>. This will affect all refugees. Venezuela, for example, which today reports 1.5 million refugees, is unlikely to find safe harbor for most of its refugees in this current climate. </p>
<p>Not unlike family immigration, the indefinite ban on temporary visas will affect the ability of nationals from all of these nations to travel to the U.S. to seek asylum. </p>
<p>The U.S Supreme Court’s ruling forecloses judicial oversight over much of President Trump’s immigration policies, at least those affecting the entry of foreign nationals. This includes those facing high stakes at the border: family separation or lack of safe harbor from persecution. For now, the nations included in the travel ban face an indefinite iron locked door, with no hope that their knocking will be answered.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/99064/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Raquel Aldana does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The ban has major implications for thousands of would-be immigrants from all of the affected countries, except perhaps Venezuela.Raquel Aldana, Associate Vice Chancellor for Academic Diversity and Professor of Law, University of California, DavisLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/893342018-01-29T11:30:52Z2018-01-29T11:30:52ZTrump’s travel ban is just one of many US policies that legalize discrimination against Muslims<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/203673/original/file-20180128-100929-ie8m1q.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">At the funeral of Nabra Hassanen, a Muslim girl who was beaten to death.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">AP Photo/Steve Helber</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>On Jan. 19, a year after President Donald Trump’s <a href="https://www.aclu-wa.org/pages/timeline-muslim-ban">first travel ban</a> was issued, the Supreme Court agreed to hear arguments against the <a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/presidential-proclamation-enhancing-vetting-capabilities-processes-detecting-attempted-entry-united-states-terrorists-public-safety-threats/">latest third version</a> signed by Trump on Sept. 24, 2017. This version remains in full effect.</p>
<p>Under the ban, nationals from eight countries are subject to travel restrictions, varying in severity by country. Venezuela and North Korea are on the list, but the ban overwhelmingly targets Muslim-majority countries: Chad, Iran, Syria, Libya, Somalia and Yemen. Thus, what the <a href="https://www.aclu.org/blog/immigrants-rights/muslim-ban-what-just-happened">American Civil Liberties Union</a> has called a “Muslim ban” will have tremendous consequences on 150 million people, the majority of whom are Muslim.</p>
<p>This policy did not emerge in a vacuum. In fact, findings from our <a href="http://haasinstitute.berkeley.edu/islamophobia">recently published research</a> expose 15 federal measures and 194 state bills that impact Muslims directly. Here’s a brief overview of some of the most critical yet overlooked measures. </p>
<h2>Anti-Muslim federal measures</h2>
<p>After Sept. 11, immigration became a key national security issue. As a result, 15 federal programs and initiatives were implemented that target and discriminate against Muslim individuals and communities. These measures rely on a narrative that depicts Muslims as untrustworthy and in conflict with American values. This framing has justified the <a href="https://www.cambridge.org/core/services/aop-cambridge-core/content/view/EB426F8A55795287366A05D58C05B0A8/S0748081416000333a.pdf/div-class-title-america-islam-and-constitutionalism-muslim-american-poverty-and-the-mounting-police-state-div.pdf">surveillance, racial profiling and violation</a> of citizens’ rights and protections enshrined in the U.S. Constitution.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/203483/original/file-20180125-100915-eiwad7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/203483/original/file-20180125-100915-eiwad7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/203483/original/file-20180125-100915-eiwad7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=320&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/203483/original/file-20180125-100915-eiwad7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=320&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/203483/original/file-20180125-100915-eiwad7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=320&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/203483/original/file-20180125-100915-eiwad7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=402&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/203483/original/file-20180125-100915-eiwad7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=402&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/203483/original/file-20180125-100915-eiwad7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=402&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Federal measures.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://haasinstitute.berkeley.edu/sites/default/files/haas_institute_legalizing_othering_the_united_states_of_islamophobia.pdf">Authors</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>There are two important, often overlooked measures that have discriminated against Muslims and Arabs: the <a href="https://www.migrationpolicy.org/article/dhs-announces-end-controversial-post-911-immigrant-registration-and-tracking-program">National Security Entry-Exit Registration System</a> and 2015 changes to the Visa Waiver Program.</p>
<p>The Entry-Exit Registration System, created by the Justice Department in 2002, fingerprinted, photographed and attempted to track all non-citizen males over 16 years of age from 25 countries. With the exception of North Korea, all 25 countries had Muslim-majority populations and more than 85,000 individuals were registered in the system. The <a href="https://www.migrationpolicy.org/article/dhs-announces-end-controversial-post-911-immigrant-registration-and-tracking-program">surveillance program</a> was implemented as a counter-terrorism tool, but the program resulted in <a href="https://www.aclu.org/blog/speakeasy/homeland-security-suspends-ineffective-discriminatory-immigration-program">zero terrorism convictions</a>. Although all target countries in the program were removed in 2011, its <a href="https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2016/12/23/2016-30885/removal-of-regulations-relating-to-special-registration-process-for-certain-nonimmigrants">regulatory framework</a> remained in place for 14 years and could have been reinstituted at any time. </p>
<p>In December 2016, President Barack Obama officially <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2016/dec/22/nseers-arab-muslim-tracking-system-dismantled-obama">dismantled the program</a>. Obama was motivated, in part, by preventing the incoming Trump administration from reviving the program. One of Trump’s campaign promises was to implement a <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/politics/first-draft/2015/11/20/donald-trump-says-hed-absolutely-require-muslims-to-register/?_r=0">Muslim registry</a>.</p>
<p>Additional anti-Muslim travel policies were introduced following the November <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/ng-interactive/2015/nov/14/paris-attacks-what-we-know-so-far">2015 Paris attacks</a> and the <a href="http://www.latimes.com/local/california/la-me-san-bernardino-shooting-terror-investigation-htmlstory.html">2015 San Bernardino attack</a> in California. </p>
<p>The attacks spurred changes to the <a href="https://www.cbp.gov/travel/international-visitors/visa-waiver-program/visa-waiver-program-improvement-and-terrorist-travel-prevention-act-faq">Visa Waiver Program</a>. The waiver allows citizens of specific countries to travel to the U.S. for up to 90 days without a visa. The 2015 changes exempted several Muslim-majority nations including Iran, Iraq, Sudan and Syria from these travel privileges.</p>
<p>Further updates were implemented in 2017 to target citizens of Iran, Iraq, Sudan, Syria, Libya, Somalia and Yemen and visitors to those countries. </p>
<h2>Anti-Muslim state legislation</h2>
<p>In addition to federal measures, our <a href="https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1C3ylHBVHlHrJqJt6NVxusTGY3BShYzhF-lxyoRxdSRM/edit?ts=59b1cfab#gid=0">database</a> has documented 194 anti-Sharia bills introduced in 39 state legislatures across the U.S. from 2010 to 2016. The <a href="https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/why-the-anti-sharia-movement-is-america-at-its-worst_us_59383f42e4b00610547ea348">anti-Sharia movement</a> is responsible for the creation of these bills, sponsored by anti-Muslim organizations like <a href="http://www.actforamerica.org/">ACT for America</a>, and politicians who spread misunderstandings and fears around Sharia. This movement frames Sharia as a <a href="https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/why-the-anti-sharia-movement-is-america-at-its-worst_us_59383f42e4b00610547ea348">cruel and violent set of Islamic laws</a> that are infiltrating U.S. courts to undermine American values and freedoms.</p>
<p><a href="https://theconversation.com/what-sharia-law-means-five-questions-answered-79325">Sharia</a> is a moral code founded on the teachings of the Quran and the Hadith – the teachings and actions of the Prophet Mohammed. Sharia is not the equivalent of Islamic law, but rather outlines how devout Muslims should <a href="https://www.thenation.com/article/true-story-sharia-american-courts/">engage with the world</a>, from what they eat to how they conduct business and personal affairs.</p>
<p>Anti-Sharia bills, founded on the fear of <a href="https://www.arktimes.com/ArkansasBlog/archives/2016/12/09/bill-filed-to-address-non-existent-problem-of-sharia-law-creeping-into-us">“creeping Sharia,”</a> identify Sharia as “<a href="https://www.cair.com/images/pdf/Pervasiveness-of-anti-Islam-legislation.pdf">foreign law</a>” and thus ban its use in courts. However, U.S. courts do regularly interpret and apply foreign law, like Sharia, <a href="https://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/03/03/consequences-of-banning-sharia-law_n_6790436.html">so long as it does not violate the U.S. Constitution</a>.</p>
<p>In states that have banned the use of foreign law, judges are unable to enforce individual contracts that call for the application of Sharia. This restricts Muslims from upholding a range of <a href="https://www.thenation.com/article/true-story-sharia-american-courts/">personal agreements</a> including marriage, estate distribution after death, or awarding of damages in commercial disputes or negligence matters. For example, the Kansas State Legislature enacted anti-Sharia <a href="http://kslegislature.org/li_2012/b2011_12/measures/SB79/">Senate Bill 79</a> in 2012. Later that year, a woman named Elham Soleimani, a Muslim immigrant from Iran, <a href="http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2013/02/201321174724878286.html">filed for divorce</a> from her husband. Under the Islamic marriage contract she and her husband had signed, she was due US$677,000 in the event of divorce. The court refused to enforce the agreement, citing the enacted anti-Sharia law.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.cair.com/press-center/press-releases/14104-cair-challenges-unconstitutional-anti-islam-bills-in-arkansas-montana-idaho-oregon.html">Anti-Sharia statutes</a> not only <a href="https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/march-against-sharia-anti-muslim-act-for-america_us_5939576ee4b0b13f2c67d50c">fuel public fear around Islam and Muslims</a>, but also prevent Muslims from using Sharia in rulings that call for cultural context.</p>
<p>Surveillance, travel restrictions, and anti-Sharia laws represent the ways in which U.S. policies discriminate against Muslims. As we anticipate the Supreme Court’s decision in June to either uphold or rescind Trump’s travel ban, the question remains: Will the Supreme Court continue to allow the legal discrimination against Muslims in the U.S.?</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/89334/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Before Trump said he wanted to create a Muslim registry, there were a number of Islamophobic policies in place.Basima Sisemore, Researcher, Haas Institute for a Fair and Inclusive Society, University of California, BerkeleyRhonda Itaoui, PhD Candidate and Research Fellow, Western Sydney UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/874832017-11-21T23:15:29Z2017-11-21T23:15:29ZReligious discrimination is a reason to fight Trump’s travel ban<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/195762/original/file-20171121-6035-jtgf5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">People carry posters during this Feb. 2017 rally against President Donald Trump's executive order banning travel from seven Muslim-majority nations, in New York's Times Square. </span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">(AP Photo/Andres Kudacki, File)</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>When President Donald Trump first signed the executive order that put into effect the country’s <a href="https://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/world/us-politics/us-court-allows-part-of-latest-trump-travel-ban-to-go-into-effect/article36937565/">travel ban</a>, he incited <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2017/feb/04/democrats-react-trump-travel-ban-judge-ruling%22%22">widespread outrage</a> against what many believe was a blatant act of religious discrimination.</p>
<p>But recently we have been <a href="https://www.theglobeandmail.com/report-on-business/rob-commentary/executive-insight/corporate-canadas-uncomfortable-silence-on-trumps-refugee-ban/article33847193/">noticeably silent</a> on the case against religious discrimination. Despite the religious undertones of the travel ban, the problem is often treated as an issue of mistaken identity rather than the systemic targeting of whole populations for their personal beliefs and affiliations.</p>
<p>The most that critics have done, both <a href="http://fortune.com/2017/01/31/donald-trump-immigration-ban-responses/">corporate</a> and <a href="http://aom.org/uploadedFiles/About_AOM/Governance/Multisociety%20Immigration%20Letter%20October%202017.pdf">academic</a>, is object on the basis of lost productivity, cultural representation, or talent.</p>
<p>Yet more fundamental to the debate is the nature of our human identity and dignity.</p>
<h2>My U.S. boycott</h2>
<p>At the start of the ban, I was doing <a href="https://macsphere.mcmaster.ca/handle/11375/22117">research</a> for my thesis exploring the cross-cultural nature of religious thought with the aim to understand the nature, role and importance of beliefs in everyday work situations. I was in an opportune position to reflect on the meaning of religious diversity in the public sphere.</p>
<p>My reflections led me to resist religious discrimination along with <a href="http://ipolitics.ca/2017/02/08/canadians-join-boycotts-of-academic-events-held-in-the-u-s/">thousands of academics</a> who had also taken a stand on the issue. I <a href="http://proceedings.aom.org/content/2017/1/17859.short">withdrew a paper</a> on my thesis research from a <a href="http://aom.org/Meetings/Past-Meetings/">management conference</a> and decided to boycott all future conference travel to the U.S. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/195765/original/file-20171121-6039-x9vul8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/195765/original/file-20171121-6039-x9vul8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/195765/original/file-20171121-6039-x9vul8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/195765/original/file-20171121-6039-x9vul8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/195765/original/file-20171121-6039-x9vul8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/195765/original/file-20171121-6039-x9vul8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/195765/original/file-20171121-6039-x9vul8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A protestor decrying the travel ban is seen outside the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals building in San Francisco, Calif. on Feb. 9, 2017.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(AP Photo/Haven Daley)</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The true issue at stake is an essential aspect of human experience, referred to as <em>religiousness</em>. Prominent scholars such as <a href="http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/1468-5914.00119/full">Peter Hill, Kenneth Pargament</a>, and <a href="http://www.oxfordscholarship.com/view/10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199931002.001.0001/acprof-9780199931002">Linda Mercadante</a> tell us that it doesn’t matter whether you consider yourself religious or spiritual, we all base our lives on ideas we consider to be significant or sacred.</p>
<p>It is more important to appreciate this transcendent aspect of who we are than to label the religion to which we belong.</p>
<p>By accepting the travel ban discourse, we presume that the political and ideological ideas of terrorism are somehow directly tied to an intimate aspect of our daily experience: our faith or the spiritual side of our lives. </p>
<h2>We are more same than different</h2>
<p>Through interviews of people from the world’s major faith traditions, my goal was to understand the nature of religious thought in work life. I found that everyday religious beliefs are based on common human experience rather than ideological difference. </p>
<p>Crucial situations — what I refer to as “work-related existential uncertainties” — sometimes force us to question who we are in front of others and why we’re living a certain way. Our self-image may be threatened, or important relationships may be strained. We may need to rethink our career path, or resolve issues in the practice of our work.</p>
<p>Religious difference is rooted in the beliefs and values that are configured differently based on the culture we grew up in. Yet they are applied to the same dilemmas that we all face. </p>
<p>At the core, we are more the same than we are different. Since people share the same basic needs and problems in life, our religious ideas are all connected in some way at a deeper level.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/195767/original/file-20171121-6039-86edmm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/195767/original/file-20171121-6039-86edmm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/195767/original/file-20171121-6039-86edmm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/195767/original/file-20171121-6039-86edmm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/195767/original/file-20171121-6039-86edmm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/195767/original/file-20171121-6039-86edmm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/195767/original/file-20171121-6039-86edmm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Americans and other expatriates gather to protest against U.S. President Donald Trump’s recent travel ban to the U.S., outside of the U.S. Embassy in Tokyo in Jan. 2017.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(AP Photo/Eugene Hoshiko)</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>I have the privilege to participate in cross-border collaboration and the perks of conference travel. But I was compelled to reconsider whether I should accept a benefit not afforded to large segments of the population because of a basic aspect of their humanity.</p>
<h2>We share a deeper connection</h2>
<p>In my research I also discovered the types of religio-spritual beliefs associated with people’s common experiences. Quite a few religions see observances as having an important role in bringing transcendence to work experience. Theistic faiths include a supreme being who has a conscious role in dispensing moral principles and judgements. Eastern traditions base the quest for human enlightenment within an impersonal universe of cause and effect.</p>
<p>Several cultures uphold distinct views of humankind as having a specially appointed dignity and autonomy. People see others as being part of the same created family, or having a shared connection with the divine. These beliefs about humanity justify the practice of respect, justice, charity, reconciliation, and other higher virtues. </p>
<p>As I spoke with others about the travel ban, classmates and colleagues confided that they had given up on attending U.S. conferences and applying to U.S. positions long ago — even before the travel ban.</p>
<p>The persistent threat of being profiled, hassled, and jailed creates a greater ethical challenge than the presidential order presents on the surface. Although advocacy by the academic community dwells mainly on the benefits of cross-border collaboration, more fundamental is the notion of fairness and objectivity in the academic enterprise.</p>
<p>Academia is one of the few truly global communities, one that upholds universal values based on equality. It maintains its legitimacy through bestowing merit to a person’s work regardless of nationality, politics or religion.</p>
<p>In today’s increasingly competitive environment for academic employment, conference acceptance and participation are important signals to others of the quality of a scholar’s research program. Those who already face impediments due to geographic, language or financial barriers are now further ostracized. </p>
<p>Typical of many who are oppressed in one way or another, they are also silenced. Raising one’s voice about privileges afforded unevenly to others can seem undignified, embarrassing and risky.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/195763/original/file-20171121-6016-1wg5dvu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/195763/original/file-20171121-6016-1wg5dvu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/195763/original/file-20171121-6016-1wg5dvu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/195763/original/file-20171121-6016-1wg5dvu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/195763/original/file-20171121-6016-1wg5dvu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/195763/original/file-20171121-6016-1wg5dvu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/195763/original/file-20171121-6016-1wg5dvu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Somali refugees Layla Muali, left, and Hawo Jamile, right, wipe away tears during an interview at the Community Refugee & Immigration Services offices in Columbus, Ohio in March 2017.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(AP Photo/John Minchillo)</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>We must actualize genuine faith</h2>
<p>While writing my thesis I was also reading about perhaps the most notorious convergence of business and religion in history. In <a href="http://www.houghtonmifflinbooks.com/booksellers/press_release/hochschild/"><em>Bury the Chains: Prophets and Rebels in the Fight to Free an Empire’s Slaves</em></a>, Adam Hochschild describes how the abolition of slavery was incited through the valiant efforts of a small group of Quaker and evangelical Christians.</p>
<p>But the reality of slavery was that millions of upstanding religious people stood idly by and were complicit in its business. Ministers held ownership shares in slavery operations, including John Newton, who admitted the evil of his ways thirty-four years after becoming an Anglican clergyman, and well after composing the beloved hymn <em>Amazing Grace</em>.</p>
<p>Religiousness is not just about believing. In my interviews, I discovered that <a href="http://www.emeraldinsight.com/doi/abs/10.1108/13673279810249369">Brenda Dervin’s concept</a> of sense-making is important to actualize religious and spiritual practice. To be truly religious, we need awareness of how our beliefs connect us to something higher and offer something better than the “common sense” of the majority.</p>
<p>Religio-spiritual beliefs are only effective when we have constructed the mental associations that allow us to internalize and contextualize them. Genuine faith is not blind: as we make deeper sense of it, faith should be enriching, encompassing, and enlivening.</p>
<p>The fact that religious communities worldwide are systematically being <a href="https://beta.theglobeandmail.com/news/world/uyghurs-xinjiang-re-education/article36208534/">persecuted</a> or <a href="http://www.civitas.org.uk/publications/christianophobia/">displaced</a>, or <a href="https://beta.theglobeandmail.com/news/world/who-are-the-rohingya-and-why-are-they-fleeing/article36242714/">rendered stateless</a> by the millions makes their plight impossible to discount. </p>
<p>Here at home, governments are doing the same thing as the Trump regime by imposing restrictions on groups whose religious beliefs are unpopular. Communities are being excluded from <a href="https://beta.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/quebec-bill-62-explainer/article36700916/">accessing public services</a> in Québec or <a href="https://beta.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/ontario-intervenes-in-case-of-proposed-christian-law-schools-ban-on-sexual-activities/article36224911/">practicing their profession</a> as law graduates. </p>
<h2>We must fight for the silent minority</h2>
<p>While there are many academics working proactively to reduce barriers, our global community needs to seriously consider the silent minority — those who have no voice or access due to systematic exclusion. For academic associations, this could mean reduced membership fees, virtual presentation formats, and alternative options for dissemination of research.</p>
<p>Religious discrimination is propelled by a view that paints all religious associations as inherently dangerous, or at least negative, intrusive, and unnecessary. Especially when certain beliefs appear foreign or offensive, religiousness is considered something to be tolerated, accommodated, or eliminated. </p>
<p>Unlike gender and cultural diversity, the religious aspects of diversity are rarely discussed as valuable to societal well-being or organizational performance.</p>
<p>In contrast, I believe — along with <a href="http://www.apa.org/pubs/books/4311506.aspx">psychologists</a> and <a href="https://www.templetonpress.org/books/cognitive-science-religion-and-theology">cognitive scientists</a> of religion — that religious thinking is a natural and important part of how we function.</p>
<p>In a world where we are increasingly pressured to compromise our integrity or dehumanize our relationships, religious diversity is a rich resource for personal resilience and shared inspiration. It is common ground we have good reasons to fight for.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/87483/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Raymond B. Chiu received funding for his thesis research from the Academy of Management and the Ontario Graduate Scholarship program. Raymond completed his thesis at McMaster University's DeGroote School of Business.</span></em></p>In the shadow of Trump-era cross-border discrimination, an early-stage scholar reflects on the meaning of religious diversity and his act of resistance by boycotting conference travel to the U.S.Raymond B. Chiu, Postdoctoral Associate, Western UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/852352017-10-08T23:14:11Z2017-10-08T23:14:11ZWhy would the Trump administration ban travel from Chad?<p>In September, the Trump administration issued a <a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2017/09/24/enhancing-vetting-capabilities-and-processes-detecting-attempted-entry">revised travel ban</a> after conducting a “worldwide review” to determine whether citizens from other countries posed a security or safety threat.</p>
<p>The administration continued to ban citizens from most of the Muslim majority countries sanctioned in the original order – Somalia, Libya, Yemen, Syria and Iran. It removed Sudan, even though that country is on the U.S.’s <a href="https://www.state.gov/j/ct/list/c14151.htm">state sponsor of terrorism</a> list. It added two longtime U.S. adversaries, <a href="https://theconversation.com/us/topics/north-korea-2060">North Korea</a> and <a href="https://theconversation.com/us/topics/venezuela-2510">Venezuela</a>, in an apparent attempt to blunt criticisms that the order is a “Muslim ban.” </p>
<p>Surprisingly, the proclamation also added Chad, a Muslim majority <a href="https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/cd.html">country</a> in the Sahel region of Africa. The Sahel is immediately south of the Sahara Desert and stretches east-west across the African continent.</p>
<iframe src="https://www.google.com/maps/embed?pb=!1m18!1m12!1m3!1d15765855.586190138!2d9.691768903657747!3d15.26311414044387!2m3!1f0!2f0!3f0!3m2!1i1024!2i768!4f13.1!3m3!1m2!1s0x10e73978bd677361%3A0x3b60835bcec0809c!2sChad!5e0!3m2!1sen!2sus!4v1507233311410" width="100%" height="450" frameborder="0" style="border:0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<p>Chad’s inclusion has befuddled observers as well as the <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/worldviews/wp/2017/09/25/why-did-the-u-s-travel-ban-add-counterterrorism-partner-chad-no-one-seems-quite-sure/">Chadian government</a> and the <a href="http://www.africanews.com/2017/09/27/au-shocked-at-chad-s-inclusion-on-us-travel-ban-ndjamena-fires-threat/">African Union</a>. </p>
<p>Based on my experience working at the State Department, including a period of time when I was focused on the Sahel, I went looking for reasons that would lead the U.S. to ban Chadians. </p>
<p>I found more questions than I was able to answer.</p>
<h2>Information sharing problems?</h2>
<p>The first accusation levied against Chad is that it “does not adequately share public-safety and terrorism-related information.” To test this claim, I searched for references to this alleged shortfall in U.S. government public documents on Chad’s counterterrorism performance, including in the past 10 years of the State Department’s annual Country Reports on Terrorism, Congressional Research Service reports and relevant congressional testimony. I didn’t find references to such shortcomings in the public record.</p>
<p>However I did find the <a href="http://live.reuters.com/Event/Live_US_Politics/1012197528">State Department cable</a> sent to embassies asking for input on governments’ performance for the review. It listed five requirements: </p>
<ul>
<li>share biographic and <a href="https://www.dhs.gov/biometrics">biometric</a> data on known or suspected terrorists</li>
<li>provide identities of foreign terrorist fighters</li>
<li>share arrests and convictions information</li>
<li>release information on travelers</li>
<li>issue The International Police Organization, or <a href="https://www.interpol.int/INTERPOL-expertise/Notices">INTERPOL, notifications</a>. These are alerts sent to other countries on wanted terrorists and felons.<br></li>
</ul>
<p>So, is there any evidence Chad failed to meet one or more of these requirements?</p>
<p>In terms of the first one, the Chadian government adopted the U.S.-provided <a href="https://www.state.gov/j/ct/programs/tip/">biometric screening system</a> in 2013, so it would be surprising if it refused to share biometric or biographic information on suspected terrorists. </p>
<p>A shortfall on sharing information about foreign terrorist fighters also seems unlikely. Chadians have not gone to <a href="http://soufangroup.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/12/TSG_ForeignFightersUpdate3.pdf">Syria</a> to fight in any discernible <a href="https://www.rferl.org/a/foreign-fighters-syria-iraq-is-isis-isil-infographic/26584940.html">numbers</a>. </p>
<p>There is limited public information on whether Chad issues INTERPOL notices, though Chad is a <a href="https://www.interpol.int/Member-countries/Africa/Chad">member country</a> of that organization and has recently received <a href="https://www.interpol.int/Member-countries/News/N201707">INTERPOL training to improve its ability to combat human trafficking</a>.</p>
<p>This leaves the requirements to share information on arrests and convictions, as well passengers – topics where there isn’t publicly available information. </p>
<p>However, Chad has been a willing security partner to the U.S. for a number of years, raising questions about why it would be reticent to share information in these realms. In fact, since 2005, the U.S. has sought to build Chad’s capability, including its ability “to monitor, restrain and interdict terrorist movements” through the <a href="https://www.state.gov/j/ct/programs/index.htm#TSCTP">Trans-Sahara Counterterrorism Partnership</a>. Prior to that, the U.S. provided assistance to Chad through the <a href="https://2001-2009.state.gov/s/ct/rls/other/14987.htm">Pan-Sahel Initiative</a>. </p>
<h2>A significant risk?</h2>
<p>The second basis for the travel ban raises even more unanswered questions. Citing groups that operate in West and North Africa, the proclamation concludes that there is a “significant terrorism-related risk from this country.” </p>
<p>However, of the terrorist groups invoked – Boko Haram, the Islamic State-West Africa, and al-Qaida in the Islamic Maghreb – none is primarily based in Chad. </p>
<p>Chadians are not the main nationality in any of these groups.</p>
<p>To the extent that any of the groups have threatened Chad, it is primarily in retaliation for the Chadian government’s efforts to counter them. In fact, the number of terrorist attacks in Chad actually <a href="https://www.start.umd.edu/gtd/search/Results.aspx?start_yearonly=1970&end_yearonly=2016&start_year=&start_month=&start_day=&end_year=&end_month=&end_day=&asmSelect0=&country=42&asmSelect1=&criterion1=yes&criterion2=yes&criterion3=yes&dtp2=all&success=yes&casualties_type=b&casualties_max=">decreased</a> from 2015 to 2016, which the State Department <a href="https://www.state.gov/j/ct/rls/crt/2016/272229.htm">attributed</a> in part to “increased and proactive security force presence by the Government of Chad.”</p>
<p>Even more confusingly, the ban on Chad comes after the State Department lauded regional efforts against militant groups. The State Department <a href="https://www.state.gov/j/ct/rls/crt/2016/272237.htm">declared</a> that “In 2016, <a href="https://www.longwarjournal.org/archives/2017/03/analysis-al-qaeda-groups-reorganize-in-west-africa.php">terrorist organizations</a> – including al-Qaida in the Islamic Maghreb, al-Mulathamun Battalion, Movement for Justice and Oneness in West Africa, Ansar al-Dine, and Macina Liberation Front – could no longer claim safe haven in the Trans-Sahara region.” </p>
<p>By the State Department’s own <a href="https://www.state.gov/j/ct/rls/crt/2016/272229.htm">admission</a> some of the credit for this development goes to Chad. Chad has engaged in “major external military operations” in neighboring countries. </p>
<p>No major international plots have emanated from Chad. </p>
<p>No Chadians have committed or were convicted of attempting to commit a <a href="https://www.cato.org/blog/guide-trumps-executive-order-limit-migration-national-security-reasons">terrorist attack on U.S. soil between 1975 and 2015</a>. </p>
<p>There haven’t been a notable number of Chadians who became leaders in al-Qaida, the Islamic State or other foreign terrorist organizations. </p>
<p>The State Department reported that the number of Chadians who joined groups in the region was “<a href="https://www.state.gov/j/ct/rls/crt/2016/272229.htm">low</a>” in 2016. This is all the more remarkable when one considers that Chad borders Sudan, Libya and Nigeria.</p>
<h2>No answers and an uncertain future</h2>
<p>To date, Africa analysts have not been able to come up with a viable rationale for the decision. Among the confused are experts, like Ambassador <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2017/09/26/world/africa/chad-travel-ban-american-interests.html?mcubz=0&_r=0">John Campbell</a> and former intelligence analyst <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2017/09/25/us/travel-ban-reaction.html?mcubz=0">Matthew Page</a>, both of whom had access to classified information for a number of years.</p>
<p>The fact is that many, if not most, partner nations both <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/monkey-cage/wp/2017/09/11/fighting-terrorism-takes-a-global-effort-how-have-3-u-s-presidents-fared-16-years-after-911/">help and hinder</a> the United States’ counterterrorism efforts. Chad, led by an authoritarian strongman who has been in power since 1990, certainly presents <a href="https://www.crisisgroup.org/africa/central-africa/chad/backing-chad-west-faces-moral-hazards">tradeoffs</a> and shortfalls. The regime is repressive and has a poor <a href="https://www.amnesty.org/en/countries/africa/chad/report-chad/">human rights record</a>. Its counterterrorism laws are so restrictive that they can be used to crack down on broader dissent. However, none of this provides a basis for Chad to be included in the travel ban – especially when many other comparable regimes are not included.</p>
<p>It remains to be seen how Chad will recalibrate its relationship with the United States. Obviously this bilateral relationship does not determine the international balance of power. But sanctioning a country that has been an ally to the United States on its top national security priority – terrorism – does serve as a red flag to other countries. Some countries will seek to stay on the United States’ good side. Others, especially in <a href="https://www.cfr.org/backgrounder/china-africa">Africa</a>, may eye China as an alternative, more reliable partner.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/85235/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Tricia Bacon worked at the Department of State from 2003 to 2013.</span></em></p>Evidence doesn’t support the Trump administration’s claims that Chad failed to share information or that its citizens are an identifiable threat.Tricia Bacon, Assistant Professor of Justice, Law & Criminology, American University School of Public AffairsLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/806672017-07-11T22:57:40Z2017-07-11T22:57:40ZCanada’s Syrian refugees ill-served by media coverage<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/177778/original/file-20170711-10554-1g9g0g3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Prime Minister Justin Trudeau welcomes Syrian refugees arriving in Canada in December 2015. </span> </figcaption></figure><p>Anti-migrant sentiment has been big news in Canada and around the world in recent years, and new research suggests that although media coverage of refugee issues has improved, it still needs work. </p>
<p>Racist, anti-refugee and Islamophobic views have been blamed for the <a href="http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/montreal/quebec-city-mosque-gun-shots-1.3957686">mosque shooting in Quebec City</a>, the <a href="http://www.cbc.ca/news/world/trump-executive-order-muslims-1.3956065">travel ban in the United States</a>, <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/society/2016/sep/07/hate-surged-after-eu-referendum-police-figures-show">Brexit</a> and <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/jan/21/marine-le-pen-leads-gathering-of-eu-far-right-leaders-in-koblenz">increasing support</a> for far-right nationalist political parties. Some observers argue that the media encourages fear and hate towards refugees, while others counter that news outlets do their best with the information and resources at hand.</p>
<p>As a communications researcher, <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/318325123_Framing_Fear_A_Critical_Review_of_News_Medias_Coverage_of_Migrant_Issues">I studied how Canadian media covered</a> the federal government’s <a href="http://www.cic.gc.ca/english/refugees/welcome/">Welcome Refugees plan</a> of 2015. I examined how the Globe and Mail, National Post, the Vancouver Sun and the Toronto Star reported on the Syrian refugees headed to Canada, and the possible repercussions for those refugees due to how they were consequently perceived by the public. </p>
<h2>Fear-based coverage</h2>
<p>The most prevalent theme in the coverage was the impact that refugees could have on Canada’s social, logistic, cultural and economic infrastructure.</p>
<p>Language such as “planeloads of Syrian refugees,” “successive waves of families” and references to refugees as large numbers to be “distributed” or “housed” across the country left the impression that migrants were a less-than-human mass pounding at the doors of Canadians. Painting refugees in such broad strokes served to dehumanize them and suggested the public should be on guard and ignore their plight.</p>
<p>Coverage didn’t highlight the contributions of past migrants nor the potential of incoming refugees, which created a perception that migrants are liabilities. Consequently, being anti-migrant could be viewed as a matter of national protectiveness. That put refugees at risk of being victimized and blamed for future societal issues. </p>
<p>Migrant issues are often politicized and susceptible to fear-based coverage. My research shows that Canada was no exception as it welcomed Syrian refugees. Held up as an example of <a href="https://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/politics/how-the-trudeau-liberals-won-a-majority-in-the-2015-federalelection/article27048562/">Trudeau’s leadership</a>, the Welcome Refugees plan was presented as a “political Trojan horse” that posed multiple threats: potential terrorists, the threats of homegrown radicalization and the prospect that Syrian refugees would fail to integrate, to name a few.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/177606/original/file-20170710-5982-9a85yh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/177606/original/file-20170710-5982-9a85yh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/177606/original/file-20170710-5982-9a85yh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/177606/original/file-20170710-5982-9a85yh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/177606/original/file-20170710-5982-9a85yh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/177606/original/file-20170710-5982-9a85yh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/177606/original/file-20170710-5982-9a85yh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A Syrian refugee from the city of Latakia poses in the Toronto residence she shares with her family in April.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">THE CANADIAN PRESS/Christopher Katsarov</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Following the <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/news-event/attacks-in-paris">Paris terrorist attacks</a> and the Welcome Refugee plan’s delay, the media echoed the public’s fears and failed to contextualize Canada’s <a href="http://www.unhcr.org/protection/resettlement/3c5e55594/unhcr-resettlement-handbook-country-chapter-canada.html?query=canada">refugee program process</a>, Canada’s humanitarian <a href="http://www.unhcr.org/3b66c2aa10">responsibility</a> or its international law commitments. Using this politicized approach, migrant issues and refugees were positioned as pawns in the political arena, too risky to trust — at the time and in the future — and devoid of human rights. </p>
<p>What’s worse, my research found this framing was used to make generalized judgments of those who are “not from here,” and to scapegoat them for any perceived threats.</p>
<p>These characterizations were possible since most people don’t often encounter migrants in their everyday lives. That’s harmful because when the contributions and positive potential of vulnerable and disenfranchised people are invalidated, their voices are muted within the public. </p>
<p>Portrayed as potential criminals without trial or recourse to defend themselves, migrants are essentially erased and marginalized from society. </p>
<h2>Us versus them</h2>
<p>Inadequate media coverage had the potential to marginalize migrants even when linking the Welcome Refugee plan to social responsibility, the Canadian identity and the human rights of refugees. A focus on sentimental, dramatic and mawkish human interest stories rather than pragmatic coverage also ran the risk of being regarded as emotional manipulation by skeptical readers. </p>
<p>A critical media examination of the plan, however, including context about how migration has and will continue to occur in Canada and around the world, would have helped normalize and humanize refugees without infantilizing their experiences.</p>
<p>The coverage also often presented migrant issues as mattering to certain groups alone: community groups, religious associations, refugee advocacy groups and those sponsoring them. It presented refugees as not part of the general population; instead, there was an “us versus them” element to the coverage. </p>
<p>Instead of being portrayed as future contributing members of society who will help shape Canadian culture, refugees were portrayed as being on the outside fringes of society, rather than being part of it. </p>
<h2>Media can ignite fear and distrust</h2>
<p>Such lenses serve to justify discrimination and prejudice towards refugees by those who are uncertain about or unfamiliar with migrants. Every refugee can then be viewed as a potential terrorist deserving of bigotry and distrust: every refugee is taking advantage of the social safety net and depleting national resources and is therefore deserving of scorn and hate; every refugee matters only to a small sector of the population, and thus is justifiably excluded from society and representation.</p>
<p>Fear and distrust of refugees does not appear out of nowhere. It’s ignited by poorly contextualized and thoughtless media coverage that promotes their “othering,” dehumanization and marginalization. </p>
<p>If we want to steer Canadian society into fairer and unbiased waters, the media needs to do a better job covering migrant issues. Only then can we hope for unbiased perceptions of migrants among the general public, and for refugees’ positive integration into Canadian society.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/80667/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Sandra M. Riano is affiliated with the International Association of Business Communicators and Doctors without Borders. </span></em></p>News organizations have a powerful role in informing the public about refugee and migrant issues. Research shows they’ve struggled to do so in a way that humanizes Syrian refugees.Sandra M. Riano, MA Professional Communications (Fall Convocation) | Communication and Marketing Professional, Royal Roads UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/792472017-06-27T16:24:56Z2017-06-27T16:24:56Z4 ways the Supreme Court could rule on Trump’s travel ban<p>The Supreme Court has <a href="https://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/16pdf/16-1436_l6hc.pdf">decided</a> to hear two legal challenges to President Donald Trump’s revised “travel ban.”</p>
<p>Among other things, the <a href="https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2017/03/09/2017-04837/protecting-the-nation-from-foreign-terrorist-entry-into-the-united-states">executive order</a> Trump signed in March temporarily bars entry of nationals from six predominantly Muslim countries: Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria and Yemen.</p>
<p>In cases arising out of <a href="http://coop.ca4.uscourts.gov/171351.P.pdf">Maryland</a> and <a href="http://cdn.ca9.uscourts.gov/datastore/uploads/general/cases_of_interest/17-15589%20per%20curiam%20opinion.pdf">Hawaii</a>, lower courts had blocked applying the ban to all nationals from the six countries. Now, under the Supreme Court’s June 26 order, family members, students, employees and others with “a bona fide relationship with a person or entity in the United States” will be allowed entry. At the same time, the Supreme Court will allow part of the travel ban to go back into effect for “foreign nationals abroad who have no connection to the United States at all.” </p>
<p>The Supreme Court will hear the combined cases in October after the justices return from summer recess. Its decision will be its first major encounter with a president who <a href="http://www.npr.org/2017/02/08/514161142/trump-accuses-courts-of-being-political-in-defense-of-immigration-order">criticizes</a> the courts as political. As a professor of constitutional law <a href="https://theconversation.com/san-francisco-is-using-a-montana-sheriffs-playbook-to-sue-trump-on-sanctuary-cities-74660">who studies</a> <a href="https://ssrn.com/abstract=2945405">law</a> and <a href="https://ssrn.com/abstract=2660484">politics</a>, I see four ways forward for the Supreme Court in these cases.</p>
<h2>Two ways to strike down the travel ban</h2>
<p><strong>1.</strong> The Maryland case was brought by U.S. residents who are separated from family members in the six named countries. It challenges the travel ban as an unconstitutional <a href="https://constitutioncenter.org/interactive-constitution/amendments/amendment-i">“establishment of religion”</a> under the First Amendment. In earlier <a href="https://scholar.google.com/scholar_case?case=975414503455261754&q=lukumi&hl=en&as_sdt=6,27#p532">cases</a>, the Supreme Court has said the Establishment Clause “forbids an official purpose to disapprove of a particular religion…” Because the travel ban singles out six countries with overwhelmingly Muslim populations, the lower court <a href="http://coop.ca4.uscourts.gov/171351.P.pdf">held</a> a “reasonable observer would likely conclude” the travel ban is intended to discriminate against Muslims. In doing so, it relied on Trump’s controversial <a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2016/11/10/muslim-ban-statement-removed-from-donald-trumps-website/">statement</a> during the campaign calling for “a total and complete shutdown of Muslims entering the United States until our country’s representatives can figure out what is going on.” A decision on these grounds would require the Supreme Court to question the president’s motives – a highly unusual move.</p>
<p><strong>2.</strong> The second case was brought by the state of Hawaii on behalf of its state university and a United States citizen whose Syrian mother-in-law seeks to immigrate. They claim the travel ban exceeds the president’s authority under immigration law. The travel ban relies on a <a href="https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/8/1182">1952 law</a> authorizing the president to “suspend the entry of all aliens or any class of aliens” if he finds their entry “would be detrimental to the interests of the United States.” Congress <a href="https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/8/1152">reformed</a> immigration law in 1965 to prohibit discrimination on the basis of nationality in issuing visas, the documents allowing immigrants to enter the United States. The court <a href="http://cdn.ca9.uscourts.gov/datastore/uploads/general/cases_of_interest/17-15589%20per%20curiam%20opinion.pdf">held</a> that the president did not show entry of people from the six countries “would be detrimental” under the 1952 law, and that the travel ban discriminated on the basis of nationality under the 1965 law. A decision on these grounds would leave the issue with Congress, which could then keep or change the law.</p>
<h2>Two ways to leave the law as it stands</h2>
<p><strong>3.</strong> Traditionally, the Supreme Court has been reluctant to second-guess the president’s policy judgments involving national security. In earlier challenges, the Supreme Court has <a href="https://scholar.google.com/scholar_case?case=12950062112938023194&q=din&hl=en&as_sdt=6,27#p2140">upheld</a> the exclusion of individual foreign nationals, even where constitutional rights may be at stake, if the government offers a “legitimate and bona fide reason.” Under this broad language, vague concerns about terrorism could be a good enough reason. As the Supreme Court recognized in <a href="https://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/16pdf/16-1436_l6hc.pdf">granting</a> review of the cases, “preserving national security is an urgent objective of the highest order.” In a separate opinion accompanying the order, three of the Supreme Court’s conservative justices, including Trump appointee Justice Neil Gorsuch, suggested this factor should weigh heavily in favor of upholding the travel ban in its entirety.</p>
<p><strong>4.</strong> The court’s order holds another clue about how it might decide the case. It asks the parties to brief the court on whether the challenges to the travel ban “became moot” or, or legally meaningless, when the 90-day travel ban ended, according to its original terms. That period is intended to give the government time to review its “vetting” of foreign nationals seeking entry into the United States. Once the government completes its review, the travel ban loses its original justification. The president recently <a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2017/06/14/presidential-memorandum-secretary-state-attorney-general-secretary">moved back</a> the 90-day clock to start when it takes limited effect after the Supreme Court’s order. Yet mootness remains a possibility. Even the extended timeline will end before the case is argued in October. If the case is moot, the Supreme Court would dismiss it without reaching a decision on the legality of the ban. </p>
<h2>Win, lose or draw</h2>
<p>It can be tempting to score these outcomes as either “wins” or “losses” for President Trump. However, the back-and-forth between the courts and the administration has already led to a significantly narrower revised ban after <a href="https://www.clearinghouse.net/chDocs/public/IM-VA-0004-0055.pdf">earlier</a> <a href="https://cdn.ca9.uscourts.gov/datastore/opinions/2017/02/09/17-35105.pdf">cases</a> struck down the <a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2017/01/27/executive-order-protecting-nation-foreign-terrorist-entry-united-states">original ban</a> issued in January. Many people who would have been subject to both the original and revised travel bans now can enter the United States legally thanks to these cases. </p>
<p>This sometimes tense dialogue between the president and the courts is typical to the resolution of high-stakes legal controversies. For example, the government argued that the courts had no role to play in determining the rights of detainees at Guantanamo Bay after 9/11. Yet, the Supreme Court <a href="https://scholar.google.com/scholar_case?q=hamdi&hl=en&as_sdt=6,27&case=6173897153146757813&scilh=0">issued</a> <a href="https://scholar.google.com/scholar_case?case=13489903449749466109&q=hamdi&hl=en&as_sdt=6,27&scilh=0">several</a> <a href="https://scholar.google.com/scholar_case?case=8363055032913729526&q=hamdi&hl=en&as_sdt=6,27&scilh=0">decisions</a> that prompted the president and Congress to revisit and temper detainee policies. In the last of these cases, Justice Anthony Kennedy on behalf of the Supreme Court <a href="https://scholar.google.com/scholar_case?case=913322981351483444&q=boumediene+v+bush&hl=en&as_sdt=6,27#p2277">encouraged</a> the president and Congress to “engage in a genuine debate about how best to preserve constitutional values while protecting the Nation from terrorism.”</p>
<p>Whatever the fate of the travel ban, it is unlikely the Supreme Court will have the last word when it issues a decision this fall. Striking down the travel ban as unconstitutional would still allow for new restrictions on immigration. Upholding the travel ban would still allow for narrower challenges to the policy and its implementation. Holding the travel ban illegal under immigration law, or finding the case moot, would throw the issue back to the president and Congress. In each of these outcomes, look for the Supreme Court again to encourage “a genuine debate.”</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/79247/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Anthony Johnstone does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>A professor of constitutional law gives a preview of what to expect when the travel ban cases reach the highest court this fall.Anthony Johnstone, Professor of Constitutional Law, University of MontanaLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/787632017-06-16T03:42:35Z2017-06-16T03:42:35ZAs Trump ups the ante, executive powers should worry Australians too<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/173481/original/file-20170613-9404-9z24qs.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">The executive government in Australia has more power than most people realise, especially when it comes to immigration.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/codydildy/2642025303/">Cody Austin/flickr</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/">CC BY-NC-ND</a></span></figcaption></figure><p><em>This article is part of the <a href="https://theconversation.com/au/topics/democracy-futures">Democracy Futures</a> series, a <a href="http://sydneydemocracynetwork.org/democracy-futures/">joint global initiative</a> between The Conversation and the <a href="http://sydneydemocracynetwork.org/">Sydney Democracy Network</a>. The project aims to stimulate fresh thinking about the many challenges facing democracies in the 21st century.</em></p>
<hr>
<p>The US president’s executive powers are a crucial way to fast-track immigration policies without congressional approval. But with Donald Trump’s <a href="https://theconversation.com/explainer-what-are-executive-orders-and-what-force-do-they-have-in-us-politics-72088">executive orders</a> barring entry to people from selected countries, these powers are taking on a new flavour.</p>
<p>While we like to think we live in a democracy with a strong separation of powers, in both Australia and the US the executive government has more power than most people realise – especially when it comes to immigration.</p>
<p>In some respects, executive powers are greater in Australia than in the US. In Australia, executive orders relating to immigration are not subject to the same checks and balances as they would be in the US. There are a few reasons for this. </p>
<h2>Differences in transparency</h2>
<p>In the US, all executive orders must be published in the <a href="https://www.federalregister.gov/executive-orders">federal register</a>, the official journal of the federal government. This at least makes them visible to Congress and to the general public. </p>
<p>In Australia, there is no such obligation. A good <a href="https://theconversation.com/operation-sovereign-borders-dignified-silence-or-diminishing-democracy-21294">example of this</a> is the immigration minister’s 2013 order authorising “turn-back” operations against vessels carrying asylum seekers as part of Operation Sovereign Borders.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/172209/original/file-20170605-31034-tq5vra.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/172209/original/file-20170605-31034-tq5vra.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/172209/original/file-20170605-31034-tq5vra.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=363&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/172209/original/file-20170605-31034-tq5vra.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=363&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/172209/original/file-20170605-31034-tq5vra.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=363&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/172209/original/file-20170605-31034-tq5vra.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=456&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/172209/original/file-20170605-31034-tq5vra.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=456&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/172209/original/file-20170605-31034-tq5vra.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=456&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">As immigration minister, Scott Morrison wouldn’t release his order authorising turn-backs of asylum-seeker boats.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asylum_in_Australia#/media/File:Scott_Morrison_Malaysian_Maritime_Enforcement_Agency_2014.jpg">DFAT</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The order was released only after a three-year <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2017/apr/03/details-of-australias-asylum-seeker-turnback-operations-released-in-foi-battle">Freedom of Information battle</a> initiated by Guardian journalist Paul Farrell. Even then, the details of the turn-back operations were redacted or not released on public interest grounds. </p>
<p>In Australia, the public and the courts may not even be aware of the orders being implemented. That means Australians are unable to scrutinise executive orders to the same extent as Americans can. This, in turn, limits the people’s ability to lodge effective legal actions against the government, as they lack the information to build a case. </p>
<h2>Australia lacks a bill of rights</h2>
<p>A second major difference is that Australia does not have a bill of rights, unlike the US. The US Bill of Rights is constitutionally entrenched as the first ten amendments to the US Constitution. </p>
<p>The success in striking down Trump’s recent executive orders relied upon two main provisions: the <a href="https://www.law.cornell.edu/constitution/fifth_amendment">Fifth Amendment Due Process Clause</a>, which requires a fair trial and prohibits the government indefinitely detaining people, and the <a href="https://www.law.cornell.edu/constitution/first_amendment">First Amendment Establishment Clause</a>, which has been interpreted as prohibiting discrimination based on religion. </p>
<p>Australia’s lack of such protections (constitutional or otherwise) stymies similar legal actions. Still, the Australian government can’t do whatever it wants with immigration. In the absence of legislative authorisation, actions of the executive will only be authorised to the extent they fall under the executive power set out in <a href="http://www.aph.gov.au/About_Parliament/Senate/Powers_practice_n_procedures/Constitution/chapter2">Section 61</a> of the Australian Constitution. </p>
<p>However, the precise scope of this power remains a matter of contention. Judges have generally been highly deferential in terms of what immigration measures they uphold.</p>
<p><a href="https://theconversation.com/high-court-asylum-case-pits-the-executive-against-the-judiciary-28956">The Tampa affair</a> in 2001 provides a good example. The MV Tampa, a Norwegian freighter, rescued 433 asylum seekers from a vessel in distress in international waters north of Australia. </p>
<p>When the captain attempted to bring them to Australia, the prime minister, John Howard, ordered special forces to storm the vessel. The asylum seekers were detained at sea for several weeks and later sent to Nauru and New Zealand. </p>
<p>While there was no legislative basis for this decision, the full bench of the Federal Court <a href="http://www.austlii.edu.au/au/cases/cth/federal_ct/2001/1329.html">upheld</a> the action. The decision was based on a broad interpretation of executive powers in the constitution. The High Court has avoided a clear judgment on this issue in <a href="http://www.austlii.edu.au/cgi-bin/sinodisp/au/cases/cth/HCA/2015/1.html?stem=0&synonyms=0&query=CPCF">subsequent decisions</a>.</p>
<h2>Trump tests limits of executive power</h2>
<p>In contrast, consider the fate of a series of <a href="https://theconversation.com/trumps-immigration-order-is-bad-foreign-policy-72053">executive orders</a> issued by President Trump. The most controversial include a 90-day travel ban on people from Iraq, Iran, Syria, Libya, Yemen, Somalia and Sudan, and a 120-day suspension of the refugee resettlement program. </p>
<p>The <a href="https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2017/02/01/2017-02281/protecting-the-nation-from-foreign-terrorist-entry-into-the-united-states">original order</a>, issued just seven days after Trump’s inauguration, caused panic and chaos at airports all over the world.</p>
<p>Both measures were claimed to be necessary for the purpose of designing <a href="http://edition.cnn.com/2016/08/16/politics/how-us-vets-immigrants-donald-trump-extreme-vetting/">“extreme vetting”</a> procedures to identify and exclude Islamic extremists. No evidence was provided to show how countries were selected, or why existing procedures were inadequate. Nor were the relevant government departments and agencies consulted in advance.</p>
<p>After just one week, the order was <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/federal-judge-temporarily-blocks-trumps-immigration-order-nationwide/2017/02/03/9b734e1c-ea54-11e6-bf6f-301b6b443624_story.html?utm_term=.9773dae7847a">suspended</a>. A federal judge in Washington state issued a temporary nationwide restraining order. </p>
<p>The decision was based on two constitutional concerns. The first related to due process considerations arising from barring entry to US visa holders without providing them with notice or a hearing. The second was rooted in the prohibition of discrimination based on religion. </p>
<p>While the executive order did not specifically say it targeted Muslims, the court put two and two together, and found the measures discriminatory. The countries subject to the ban were all principally Muslim, and during his campaign Trump had <a href="https://www.rt.com/usa/325046-trump-muslim-ban-usa/">promised</a> a “total and complete shutdown of Muslims entering the United States”.</p>
<p>The Trump administration responded by issuing a <a href="https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2017/03/09/2017-04837/protecting-the-nation-from-foreign-terrorist-entry-into-the-united-states">new executive order</a>. This order provided more information justifying why nationals from the selected countries presented a heightened security risk. </p>
<p>The number of target countries was also reduced to six, with Iraq being removed, and permanent US residents were exempt. It was the inclusion of US residents in the original ban that had raised the most serious concerns about due process.</p>
<p>Despite these concessions, the courts also suspended the updated executive order. Appeals are <a href="https://theconversation.com/trump-loses-appeal-but-travel-ban-fight-isnt-over-yet-72648">pending</a>. The outcome will depend on how the courts apply the long-standing “<a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2016/10/testing-federal-power-over-immigration/505232/">plenary power</a>” doctrine that gives the political branches a broad and largely exclusive authority over immigration. </p>
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<p>In the past, the courts have used this doctrine to uphold discriminatory immigration laws, which would have been unconstitutional in other contexts. This applies particularly to laws targeting immigrants who are outside the US. However, recent decisions indicate that the scope of the <a href="https://www.justsecurity.org/36988/muslim-ban-held-unconstitutional-myth-unconstrained-immigration-power/">plenary power may be narrowing</a>.</p>
<p>Trump’s other executive orders on immigration have largely flown under the radar. <a href="https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2017/01/30/2017-02095/border-security-and-immigration-enforcement-improvements">The Executive Order on Border Security</a> authorises construction of a wall on the Mexican border and <a href="http://edition.cnn.com/2017/02/18/politics/kelly-guidance-on-immigration-and-border-security/">expands</a> the use of mandatory immigration detention. </p>
<p><a href="https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2017/01/30/2017-02102/enhancing-public-safety-in-the-interior-of-the-united-states">The Executive Order on Interior Enforcement</a> punishes “<a href="http://time.com/4797381/texas-anti-sanctuary-city-bill-protests/">sanctuary cities</a>”, or municipalities that are unco-operative with federal authorities in enforcing immigration laws. It also extends the list of non-citizens prioritised for deportation.</p>
<h2>Other than court action, what protections are there?</h2>
<p>In Australia, protections are provided first and foremost through parliamentary representation, an approach informed by Australia’s British constitutional history. </p>
<p>The government of the day sits in parliament with the assumption that an executive that fails to act in the interests of the public can be thrown out of office at the next general election. The Senate, which is not always dominated by the government of the day, can offer oversight as well.</p>
<p>Unfortunately, these protections don’t always work. New arrivals can’t vote. Even if they become citizens, refugees remain a minority and have little influence over election results. It’s also naive to assume that all waves of migrants operate as a cohesive voting bloc. </p>
<p>The immigration executive can also avoid Senate oversight. Operation Sovereign Borders again provides an instructive example. In 2013, citing national security concerns, the minister refused the Senate’s request for information. </p>
<p>Furthermore, as a result of the way that <a href="https://theconversation.com/explainer-how-australia-decides-who-is-a-genuine-refugee-72574">refugee politics</a> has unfolded in Australia, there is bipartisan support for draconian policies. The executive is unco-operative and the Senate does not always punish non-compliance. </p>
<p>For instance, when the minister refused to provide information about Operation Sovereign Borders, a <a href="http://www.aph.gov.au/Parliamentary_Business/Committees/Senate/Legal_and_Constitutional_Affairs/Public_Interest_Immunity/Report/index">Senate committee</a> recommended “political” and “procedural” penalties. None of these were carried out.</p>
<p>The parliament is also often willing to retrospectively authorise immigration-related actions once judicial proceedings have begun. This happened during the recent <a href="http://www.austlii.edu.au/cgi-bin/sinodisp/au/cases/cth/HCA/2016/1.html?stem=0&synonyms=0&query=M68">High Court challenge</a> to the executive’s power to have asylum seekers detained on Nauru. </p>
<p>Once court proceedings were initiated, <a href="https://www.legislation.gov.au/Details/C2015A00104">legislation</a> was swiftly introduced with bipartisan support to retrospectively authorise the government’s action. A similar approach was taken to <a href="http://www.kaldorcentre.unsw.edu.au/news/tampa-affair-15-years">validate actions during the Tampa affair</a>.</p>
<p>So, as the world reacts with shock each time Trump issues another far-reaching executive order, it is worth remembering that the use of executive power in Australia is, in many ways, more expansive and unchecked than in the US. This is not limited to immigration. Australian courts have been willing to take an expansive view of executive power in a <a href="http://www.aph.gov.au/%7E/%7E/link.aspx?_id=C8C131542382464EB28135A33F9EA201&_z=z">whole host of policy areas</a>.</p>
<p>Both the Australian and the US public need to remain vigilant. Tolerance of the executive’s attack on the rights of non-citizens threatens to pave the way for similar action against citizens.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/78763/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Anna Boucher receives funding from the Australian Research Council that is unassociated with this current article. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Daniel Ghezelbash does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Under US law, the president must publish all of their executive orders for public view. The Australian government is under no such obligation.Anna Boucher, Senior Lecturer in Public Policy and Political Science, University of SydneyDaniel Ghezelbash, Lecturer, Macquarie Law School, Macquarie UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/776072017-06-06T00:17:42Z2017-06-06T00:17:42ZThe decline in foreign students hurts America’s future<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/172345/original/file-20170605-16869-1brhft2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Multicultural friendships formed in college help develop students' cultural agility</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/education-students-people-knowledge-concept-521629030?src=_h9GSMLeITArIZanpooDUA-1-38">Rawpixel / Shutterstock.com</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>The Trump administration’s nationalism (as most recently witnessed in <a href="http://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/trump-tweets-favor-original-travel-ban-not-watered-down-version-n768191">his pro-travel ban Twitter reaction</a> to the London attacks) has had an unfortunate effect on universities in the United States. Namely, some international students, surmising that they’re unwelcome or unsafe studying in the U.S., are not applying. As a result, many American universities are reporting <a href="https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2017/03/13/nearly-4-10-universities-report-drops-international-student-applications">a significant decline in international student applications</a>.</p>
<p>This decline in applications, while applauded by those <a href="http://items.ssrc.org/reflections-on-the-rise-of-educational-nationalism/">hoping to improve admissions for American students</a>, has unintended long-term consequences: It makes America less safe and less prepared for future global growth.</p>
<p>As a researcher studying how individuals develop cross-cultural competencies, I’ve found that domestic and international student integration on American university campuses is essential for building cultural understanding – important for the future of national and economic security.</p>
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<h2>The need for student integration</h2>
<p>Over 600 university presidents recently reminded Secretary of Homeland Security John Kelly of <a href="http://www.acenet.edu/news-room/Documents/Letter-From-Institutions-to-DHS-on-Immigration-Executive-Order.pdf">international students’ benefit to national security</a>. In a letter dated Feb. 3, 2017, they stated that international students who study in the United States return to their home countries as “…ambassadors for American values, democracy and the free market.” </p>
<p>According to <a href="https://www.nafsa.org/">NAFSA</a> (a nonprofit organization for international educators), international students can help to <a href="http://www.nafsa.org/Policy_and_Advocacy/Policy_Resources/Policy_Recommendations/Welcoming_Foreign_Students_to_U_S__Institutions_is_Vital_to_American_Public_Policy/">counteract negative stereotypes of Americans</a> back in their home countries. Research has found that college students with friends from different countries are <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijintrel.2010.11.001">more open-minded and had less apprehension when engaging in conversation</a> with people from different countries. Both, I believe, are useful characteristics to combat terrorism; those who like Americans would seem less likely to attack America.</p>
<p>In addition to the benefit for national security, integration of international students is critical for American students’ development of <a href="http://www.wiley.com/WileyCDA/WileyTitle/productCd-1118275071.html">cultural agility</a>: the ability to work comfortably and effectively in different countries and with people from different cultures. Cultural agility is a competency in high demand by employers, making it an asset for both American and international students upon graduation. </p>
<p>Roughly one-third of multinational firms cite a lack of culturally agile employees as a limit to their <a href="http://www.mckinsey.com/global-themes/leadership/developing-global-leaders">global competitiveness</a>. When over 13,000 professionals from 48 countries <a href="http://www.ddiworld.com/DDI/media/trend-research/global-leadership-forecast-2014-2015_tr_ddi.pdf">rated their effectiveness</a> on 12 managerial tasks, the three tasks with the lowest ratings were those with an intercultural component: integrating oneself into foreign environments, intercultural communication, and leading across countries and cultures. Clearly, it’s a skill valued by employers, but lacking in the workforce.</p>
<p>My research has found that <a href="http://www.wiley.com/WileyCDA/WileyTitle/productCd-1118275071.html">cultural agility can be readily fostered on diverse college campuses</a> that successfully promote inclusion. It is gained over time, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jwb.2012.01.014">through collaboration and friendship</a> among those from different cultures.</p>
<h2>Fostering international and domestic student integration</h2>
<p>Some universities have started <a href="https://www.youarewelcomehereusa.org/read-me/">#YouAreWelcomeHere campaigns</a> to attract international students with a countervailing message of openness and inclusion. The campaign will, hopefully, also encourage wary international students to apply. Enrollment, however, is only half the solution. What happens when the international students arrive?</p>
<p>While studying in another country holds promise for developing cross-cultural competencies, the reality is all too often quite different. According to the South China Morning Post, 25 percent of Chinese students attending Ivy League universities in the U.S. <a href="http://www.scmp.com/news/china-insider/article/1342846/study-one-four-chinese-students-drop-out-ivy-league-schools">dropped out of school</a>. Many reported difficulties adjusting to the new environment.</p>
<p>For those international students who do not drop out, nearly 40 percent of them reported having <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/17513057.2012.691525">no close American friends but would like to have more meaningful relationships</a>, based on a study of over 450 international students attending 10 public universities in the United States. International student experiences fall short of the expectation that cross-cultural bonding and skill-building will occur automatically; sharing a campus and classes is not enough to form friendships.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/172313/original/file-20170605-16845-cuurms.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/172313/original/file-20170605-16845-cuurms.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/172313/original/file-20170605-16845-cuurms.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/172313/original/file-20170605-16845-cuurms.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/172313/original/file-20170605-16845-cuurms.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/172313/original/file-20170605-16845-cuurms.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/172313/original/file-20170605-16845-cuurms.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A Chinese study found that language barriers and differences in educational systems were leading causes for some international students to drop out of school.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/cityofpg/6162937613/">City of Prince George/flickr</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/">CC BY-ND</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p><a href="http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/smi.1139/full">College is a stressful period</a>. When under periods of stress, students, like all of us, have the greatest cognitive and emotional comfort with those who they perceive <a href="http://dx.doi.org.ezproxy.neu.edu/10.1037/0022-3514.72.2.305">are going through the same experience</a>.</p>
<p>The result is that people from the same country, when placed in a new country together as foreigners, connect with one another. We see this when we walk around not only college campuses but also expatriate communities abroad. While it is a natural human response, students who associate only with other similar students miss the opportunity to develop their cultural agility.</p>
<p>In an intervention piloted at the College of Business Administration at Kent State University, we found that student integration could be fostered by training both international and domestic students in conversational and cultural skills. The study, while not yet published, found that students who participated in this skill-building program had greater openness and higher levels of integration when compared to a control group. The benefit was an increased sense of ease to make friends on campus, better perceptions of social support, a sense of belonging and overall satisfaction, especially among those students who were less open when starting their freshman year.</p>
<h2>Looking ahead</h2>
<p>Students, both international and domestic, benefit from their multicultural friendships. Through their college friendships, they can demystify differences and become more open to people from different countries and cultures. This ease with cultural difference is the foundation of cultural agility.</p>
<p>This cultural agility can, in turn, have a lasting, positive effect on their personal career success and international cooperation. </p>
<p>The challenge, especially in today’s environment, is for universities to get ahead of the decline in international student applications before it becomes a detrimental trend. If not addressed, the opportunities for cultural development will be limited, potentially eroding national security and our students’ professional success as they compete in the global economy.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/77607/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Paula Caligiuri consults in the area of building cultural agility. </span></em></p>International student integration can (and should) be fostered on college campuses for the sake of national security and professional readiness.Paula Caligiuri, Distinguished Professor of International Business and Strategy, Northeastern UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/741412017-03-07T01:18:03Z2017-03-07T01:18:03ZTrump’s revised travel ban still faces legal challenges<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/159682/original/image-20170306-20749-1hpblkt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Men watch the TV news in Baghdad, Iraq, on March 6, 2017. </span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">AP Photo/Hadi Mizban</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>President Trump’s <a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2017/03/06/executive-order-protecting-nation-foreign-terrorist-entry-united-states">new executive order</a> on immigration addresses some of the legal problems found by courts in the Jan. 27 original order, but is still vulnerable on some of the same legal grounds. </p>
<p>As a constitutional law professor who has recently written on <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-best-legal-arguments-against-trumps-immigration-ban-72196">this topic</a>, I’d contend that Trump’s lawyers are not out of the woods yet.</p>
<h2>Some important changes</h2>
<p>The new executive order still has <a href="http://www.cnn.com/2017/01/28/politics/text-of-trump-executive-order-nation-ban-refugees/">the original’s</a> 120-day ban on the entry of refugees from all countries. Jettisoned is the indefinite ban on Syrian refugees. </p>
<p>The new order keeps the 90-day ban on entry by persons from six majority Muslim countries – Iran, Syria, Somalia, Sudan, Libya and Yemen. But the new order removes Iraq from the list. The change came because of Iraq’s role in assisting the U.S. in the fight against the Islamic State and its enhanced security measures, according to Secretary of State <a href="http://www.cnn.com/2017/03/06/politics/iraq-travel-ban/index.html">Rex Tillerson</a>. </p>
<p>The revised order also removes the original’s preference for refugees who are members of “minority” religions in their country of origin. Stating this preference had opened the Trump administration up to <a href="https://theconversation.com/trump-loses-appeal-but-travel-ban-fight-isnt-over-yet-72648">the argument</a> that the original order aided Christians and other non-Muslims in violation of the separation of church and state. </p>
<p>But the change may be too little, too late. The federal court that struck down the first executive order on <a href="http://lawprofessors.typepad.com/files/azizmemo.pdf">church-state grounds</a> also relied on statements by Trump and Rudy Giuliani that the purpose of the order was to effectuate a “Muslim ban.” The new executive order doesn’t undo the effect of those statements. You can’t unring that bell.</p>
<h2>Due process clause less of an issue</h2>
<p>Additionally, the current executive order clarifies that it does not apply to green card holders or those who hold lawful visas. This detail will help Trump defend against arguments that the order violates the Constitution’s due process clause, which was <a href="http://cdn.ca9.uscourts.gov/datastore/opinions/2017/02/09/17-35105.pdf">the basis for the federal appellate court ruling</a> that the order was unconstitutional. </p>
<p>The <a href="https://www.law.cornell.edu/constitution/fifth_amendment">due process clause</a> provides that the government cannot take away someone’s liberty without notice and a hearing before an unbiased decision-maker. It applies even to noncitizens if they are <a href="http://caselaw.findlaw.com/us-supreme-court/533/678.html">present in the U.S.</a>, but not to noncitizens abroad. Exempting noncitizens with green cards or visas means there are far fewer people affected by the executive order who have the right to complain of a due process problem. </p>
<p>But other legal issues apply equally to the original and revised orders. By imposing a blanket ban on anyone coming from one of the remaining six majority Muslim countries, this week’s executive order still arguably runs afoul of <a href="https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/8/1152">a 1965 statute</a> that bans discrimination on the basis of “national origin” regarding visas. To be sure, by exempting current visa holders from the executive order’s reach, the universe of potential legal challengers on this ground shrinks. But to the extent the executive order burdens those seeking new visas, there may still be a viable legal challenge.</p>
<p>Ultimately, the only way to know for sure the legal effect of this new executive order is to wait for a court ruling. Given that the American Civil Liberties Union has <a href="https://twitter.com/ACLU/status/838800959836983298">already pledged</a> to challenge the new executive order in its ongoing litigation against the immigrant ban, we may not have to wait long.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/74141/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Steven Mulroy does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The revised ban allows entry to citizens of Iraq, but continues to block citizens of six other Muslim majority nations.Steven Mulroy, Law Professor in Constitutional Law, Criminal Law, Election Law, University of MemphisLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/734002017-02-23T21:07:51Z2017-02-23T21:07:51ZDonald Trump, white victimhood and the South African far-right<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/157882/original/image-20170222-1364-1h7l7ck.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Afrikaans singer Steve Hofmeyr (with the yellow t-shirt) in front of a statue of Paul Kruger at Church Square in Pretoria.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Alon Skuy/The Times</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>In the age of smartphones and social media, the <a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/general-election-2015/politics-blog/11565661/Viral-memes-are-ruining-our-politics.-Share-if-you-agree.html">spread of ideas as digital memes</a> is global and unpredictable. This includes, for example, <a href="http://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-29052144">Islamic State</a> (IS) recruiting followers from across the globe, to the nationalist and xenophobic <a href="http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/brexit-vote-has-led-to-noticeable-rise-in-uk-xenophobia-watchdog-warns-a7343646.html">ideas</a> that were espoused respectively in the campaigns by <a href="https://en.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/brexiteer">Brexiteers</a> to get the UK to <a href="http://www.politico.eu/article/brexit-in-memes-uk-decision-light-hearted-view/">leave the European Union</a> and Donald Trump to <a href="http://www.vox.com/2016/7/7/12116242/trump-frozen-antisemitic-meme-clinton">get elected</a> as US president. </p>
<p>Around the world, <a href="http://www.vox.com/2016/12/31/13869676/social-media-influence-alt-right">the right</a> especially has shown how effective a tool social media can be.</p>
<p>A good example is popular South African singer <a href="http://synapses.co.za/muppet-takes-puppet-steve-hofmeyr-chestermissing/">Steve Hofmeyr</a>, who is a foremost crusader for <a href="http://www.enca.com/south-africa/red-october-plight-whites-new-south-africa">white right-wing causes</a>, –especially on social media. With 222,000 followers, his Twitter <a href="https://twitter.com/steve_hofmeyr">timeline</a> not only features local issues of so-called white victimhood, but also retweets of prominent European extremists’ campaigns. As to be expected, he is a strong Trump supporter.</p>
<p>Recently, there was a fundraising campaign to <a href="https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/article/2017-02-06-in-trump-he-trusts-meet-the-man-who-could-be-the-next-us-ambassador-to-south-africa/#.WKIHg9J96Hs">send Hofmeyr to the US</a> to meet with Trump. The extremist campaigner behind the proposed “talks” said it was aimed at stopping the “genocide” of white Afrikaners. He even sent tweets to Trump’s daughter, Ivanka, and his wife, Melania, to help facilitate the talks. </p>
<p>But South Africa’s right-wing is a fractious bunch, and the fundraising campaign stuttered to a halt when it appeared that it was a scam and Hofmeyr <a href="http://www.news24.com/SouthAfrica/News/hofmeyr-withdraws-from-trump-fundraising-20170214">distanced</a> himself from the efforts.</p>
<h2>Victimhood crossing borders</h2>
<p>White victimhood has crossed international borders. The idea of white people falling victim to an “onslaught” of refugees and immigrants has become a <a href="http://time.com/time-person-of-the-year-populism/">major factor</a> in elections across Europe. The meaning of “PC” is changing, with political correctness making way for patriotic correctness. That’s what Trump’s “America First” is all about.</p>
<p>Trump’s campaign slogan “Make America Great Again” <a href="http://www.herald.co.zw/trump-and-fascism-democracy-fatigue/">appealed to</a> white victimhood. He focused on a white electorate who feels disillusioned by demographic and sociopolitical change in the US. They <a href="http://www.salon.com/2017/02/12/trumps-supporters-believe-a-false-narrative-of-white-victimhood-and-the-data-proves-it/">feel</a> that American values are in danger, and hence there is the need to “take back America”.</p>
<p>White victimhood is a <a href="https://www.splcenter.org/hatewatch/2017/01/25/altered-right-how-white-nationalists-exploit-tragedy-build-narrative-white-victimhood">right-wing tactic</a> that inverts the left’s narratives of minority discrimination and neocolonialism. This tactic denies that there is such a thing as white privilege, and attempts to camouflage white domination.</p>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/157867/original/image-20170222-1340-5jmgfa.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/157867/original/image-20170222-1340-5jmgfa.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=924&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/157867/original/image-20170222-1340-5jmgfa.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=924&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/157867/original/image-20170222-1340-5jmgfa.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=924&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/157867/original/image-20170222-1340-5jmgfa.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1161&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/157867/original/image-20170222-1340-5jmgfa.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1161&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/157867/original/image-20170222-1340-5jmgfa.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1161&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Milo Yiannopoulos has resigned from the righ-twing Breitbart News.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Jason Szenes/EPA</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Whites can surely be victims of crime or discrimination as individuals, but white victimhood goes much further. It implies that whites as a demographic group are victims of discrimination, oppression or even persecution. In short, whites are endangered by all sorts of dangers out there in the world.</p>
<p>This recent right-wing tactic has morphed into the <a href="https://www.splcenter.org/fighting-hate/extremist-files/ideology/alternative-right">“alt-right”</a> movement in America with various faces. The extreme is the new Nazism dressed in designer suits and championed by <a href="http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2016/11/richard-spencer-speech-npi/508379/">American white supremacist</a> <a href="http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/richard-spencer-alt-right-punched-donald-trump-inauguration-a7538746.html">Richard Spencer</a>, who is president of the <a href="http://www.npiamerica.org/">National Policy Institute</a>. </p>
<p>There is the more “gentrified” culture of anti-left trolling with the Brit <a href="http://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-39026870">Milo Yiannopoulos</a> as its <a href="https://www.thenation.com/article/an-interview-with-the-most-hated-man-on-the-internet/">flamboyant poster boy</a>. This right-wing provocateur was forced this week <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2017/feb/21/milo-yiannopoulos-resigns-breitbart-pedophilia-comments">to fall on his sword</a> over remarks in which he appeared to endorse sex between “younger boys” and older men.</p>
<p>And there is <a href="https://qz.com/898134/what-steve-bannon-really-wants/">Trump’s powerful chief strategist</a>, <a href="http://www.bbc.com/news/election-us-2016-37971742">Stephen Bannon</a>, with his <a href="https://www.buzzfeed.com/lesterfeder/this-is-how-steve-bannon-sees-the-entire-world?utm_term=.pnqZjAZKb#.bho5Ek5oB">siege mentality</a> against “Islamic fascism”. </p>
<h2>Alt-right’s South African ties</h2>
<p>The “alt-right” news website <a href="https://www.splcenter.org/hatewatch/2017/02/21/breitbart-under-bannon-breitbarts-comment-section-reflects-alt-right-anti-semitic-language">Breitbart</a> has an editor-at-large (after Bannon’s departure) with strong South African ties. <a href="http://mg.co.za/article/2017-02-08-a-south-african-link-to-trumps-inner-circle">Joel Pollak</a>, born in South Africa, was a speechwriter for the opposition Democratic Alliance leader Tony Leon from 2002 to 2006 whilst studying in the country.</p>
<p>Pollak is now being floated as Trump’s <a href="https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/article/2017-02-06-in-trump-he-trusts-meet-the-man-who-could-be-the-next-us-ambassador-to-south-africa/#.WKIHg9J96Hs">possible US ambassador in Pretoria</a>. </p>
<p>This South African connection goes deeper. The persecution of whites is an influential idea for the South African far-right. The fear of black violence, the so-called “Swart Gevaar” (Afrikaans for black danger) propagated by the apartheid state, still persists. The most extreme version of this victimhood is “white genocide”. </p>
<p>This idea has been popularised by the Afrikaans pop singers Hofmeyr and <a href="http://www.news24.com/SouthAfrica/News/Law-expert-Sunette-Bridges-order-could-set-precedent-20150401">Sunette Bridges</a> through their <a href="http://www.enca.com/south-africa/red-october-plight-whites-new-south-africa">Red October campaign</a>. They advocate that farm murders in South Africa come down to “white genocide” – farm murders most certainly are <a href="https://issafrica.org/amp/iss-today/farm-attacks-and-farm-murders-remain-a-concern">problematic</a>, even without it being hijacked for political mileage. But they <a href="http://www.farmersweekly.co.za/agri-business/bottomline/the-truth-about-farm-murders/">don’t amount</a> to “white genocide” and affects more than white people.</p>
<p>The right-wing political party Freedom Front Plus has <a href="http://www.timeslive.co.za/politics/2014/11/26/FF-call-on-UN-to-investigate-SA-for-genocide1">called on</a> the UN to investigate white genocide. The <a href="http://www.farmersweekly.co.za/agri-news/south-africa/farm-murder-figures-tau-sa/">numbers</a> show that this idea is sheer hyperbole. </p>
<p>An <a href="https://www.change.org/p/european-commission-allow-all-white-south-africans-the-right-to-return-to-europe">online petition</a> has also <a href="http://www.politicsweb.co.za/opinion/on-whites-right-of-return-to-europe--front-nasiona">requested</a> the Council of the EU to <a href="https://www.change.org/p/european-commission-allow-all-white-south-africans-the-right-to-return-to-europe/u/18505106">“allow all white South Africans the right to return to Europe”</a>. The petition says that whites face persecution and ethnic cleansing at home.</p>
<p>The petition has been reinvigorated by Trump’s election as US president and calls him “a new hope for white South Africans”. It now addresses Trump to accept whites from South Africa as refugees to the US.</p>
<p>The idea of white genocide (or annihilation) has spread to the rest of the globe. Views from the South African far-right found its way into two well-known acts of terrorism committed by radicalised white men. </p>
<p>The first was the 2011 mass murder of 77 people (mostly minors) by <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2016/03/16/world/europe/anders-breivik-nazi-prison-lawsuit.html?_r=0">Anders Breivik</a> on an island near Oslo in Norway. Breivik’s <a href="https://publicintelligence.net/anders-behring-breiviks-complete-manifesto-2083-a-european-declaration-of-independence/">manifesto</a> “2083 – A European Declaration of Independence” is a reference to his predicted date when Europe becomes a Muslim continent. It includes various references to the persecution of whites in South Africa and a whole section on Afrikaner genocide. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/157869/original/image-20170222-1310-1ozjlkr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/157869/original/image-20170222-1310-1ozjlkr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=403&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/157869/original/image-20170222-1310-1ozjlkr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=403&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/157869/original/image-20170222-1310-1ozjlkr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=403&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/157869/original/image-20170222-1310-1ozjlkr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=507&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/157869/original/image-20170222-1310-1ozjlkr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=507&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/157869/original/image-20170222-1310-1ozjlkr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=507&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Norwegian right-wing mass murderer Anders Breivik during a court appearance.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Lise Aaserud/Scanpix</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The second was the 2015 mass shooting of nine black people by <a href="http://time.com/4603863/dylann-roof-verdict-guilty/">Dylann Roof</a> in a church in Charleston, South Carolina. Roof’s manifesto <a href="http://lastrhodesian.net/data/documents/rtf88.txt">“The Last Rhodesian”</a> included a reference to discrimination against whites in South Africa. He also lauds the “success” of apartheid as proof that a black majority can be controlled by a white minority. </p>
<p>Breivik and Roof both raised the fear of persecution of whites as motivation for their actions. They invoked the South African situation as “proof” that whites are in danger due to an onslaught by Muslims (in Europe) and black people (in the US).</p>
<p>Trump’s <a href="http://edition.cnn.com/2017/01/20/politics/trump-inaugural-address/">mention</a> of “American carnage” in his inaugural address is a continuation of the narrative of white victimhood. It forms the imaginary basis for something similar to the apartheid state’s “Swart Gevaar” – except with Mexicans and Muslims being the “peril”. </p>
<p>Trump’s way to deal with these hyperbolic dangers is the proposed <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2017/02/a-border-wall-by-2020-doubt-it/517341/">wall</a> between the US and Mexico, and the Muslim <a href="http://edition.cnn.com/2017/02/20/politics/trump-new-executive-order-immigration/">travel ban</a> targeting majority-Muslim countries.</p>
<p>The idea of white victimhood played an <a href="http://www.salon.com/2016/06/06/the_politics_of_bigotry_donald_trump_and_the_rise_of_white_racial_victimhood/">important part</a> in Trump’s rise. The South African brand of white supremacy has made a tangible contribution to this narrative of victimhood. It is part of a growing “<a href="https://philcsc.wordpress.com/2008/08/07/interrogating-transnationalism-white-supremacist-cosmopolitanism/">white supremacist cosmopolitanism</a>” and a <a href="http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/trump-inauguration-signals-new-world-order-a-1130916.html">Trump New World Order</a>.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/73400/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Charles Villet does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The idea of white victimhood played an important part in Donald Trump’s rise. The South African brand of white supremacy has made a tangible contribution to this narrative of victimhood.Charles Villet, Lecturer in Philosophy, School of Social Science, Monash South Africa, Monash UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.