Barack Obama can be treated as a “soft president” compared to his successor Donald Trump. However, the history shows both governors implemented tough immigration policies at their time.
Trump’s decision over international travelers created a serious, global scale social resonance. The president ordered to stop the entry of all refugees for 120 days and halted visas for 90 days for all people from Iraq, Sudan, Syria, Somalia, Libya, Yemen and Iran. The step caused mass protest in U. S. and other countries, led to lawsuits and other negative reactions.
Media recalled Obama made similar decision in 2011, but it was less widespread. The former president reportedly quietly suspended the Iraq refugee program for six months over terrorism fears. New agencies revealed this information only two years later. The program was suspended because of two refugees from Kentucky, who appeared to be al-Qaida members who had admitted to targeting U.S. troops in Iraq. The FBI mentioned criminals could come to the U. S. with dozens counterparts who were mistakenly treated as war refugees. The restriction affected people who helped American troops.
This group can face similar consequences with Trump’s new program. It can be a reason why Starbucks focuses on these people in its new long-term strategy of hiring refugees.
Barack Obama is needed at home, said Americans
Despite his previous decisions, many people see Obama as almost the only force that can stand against Trump. The opinion extends to his wife too. Some media claim the couple should return from their vacation and become a voice for the majority of Americans who did not vote for Donald Trump.
While President’s decisions don’t surprise the society, as they correspond to his election agenda, people argue they violate the human and civil rights firmly established by law and the U.S. Constitution. Trump’s orders already made some individuals to compare him with Hitler.
In Forward magazine, Andrew Nagorski, who wrote “Hitlerland: American Eyewitnesses to the Nazi Rise to Power,” described Jews and non-Jews’ slow wake-up call to the Nazi danger:
“In the very early 1920s, when Adolf Hitler was still only a local rabble rouser in Munich, two men from Munich’s American consulate made a point of observing his rallies: Robert Murphy, the young acting consul, and Paul Drey, a German employee who was a member of a distinguished Bavarian Jewish family.
“Do you think these agitators will ever get far?” Murphy asked his colleague. “Of course not!” Drey replied. “The German people are much too intelligent to be taken in by such scamps.”
Worriers hope Obama will become a power that will be able to unite forces against potentially dangerous orders of the new U. S. governor.
