Washington – US President Donald Trump said Monday there had been very few problems with the implementation of his travel ban while reminding the world that it was “a big part of my campaign.”
Trump used Twitter to send messages defending his decision to order the travel ban as more protests against it were planned in the United States and outrage swelled.
“There is nothing nice about searching for terrorists before they can enter our country,” Trump said. “This was a big part of my campaign. Study the world!”
The president said John Kelly, the secretary of the Department of Homeland Security, had informed him that all was going well with the travel restrictions and there had been “very few problems.”
Thousands of people protested Trump’s executive order on immigration and refugees at the White House on Sunday and, later, the huge crowd marched to Congress, Washington, DC, US. (Credit Image: © Miguel Juarez Lugo via ZUMA Wire)
He reiterated the administration’s argument that only 109 people out of approximately 325,000 passengers who arrived in the US on Sunday were detained and held for questioning.
The problems at US airports were caused by a Delta Air Lines computer outage, he said.
In a statement on Sunday, Trump said that the executive order he issued Friday was not a ban on Muslims and reiterated his position that it was “about terror and keeping our country safe.”
He defended the order as a move similar to what former president Barack Obama did in 2011 when he banned visas for refugees from Iraq for six months.
“America is a proud nation of immigrants and we will continue to show compassion to those fleeing oppression, but we will do so while protecting our own citizens and border,” Trump said in the statement.
But his statements didn’t quell the outcry over the executive order, which banned citizens from seven Muslim-majority countries for 90 days, temporarily suspended refugee admissions to the US for 120 days and banned admissions from Syria indefinitely.
The restrictions affected people in transit, left people preparing to leave the country with no choice but to cancel their trips for fear of not being able to return and halted the resettlement of refugees, including people who had waited years to be resettled from war zones after helping the US military.
The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), among several organizations that have mounted a fight to have the order reversed, says the ban is unconstitutional.
It was unclear on Monday how a temporary reprieve issued by several judges in response to the ACLU and other lawsuits would be handled. The administration said Sunday it would comply with judicial rulings, but also said it intended to continue enforcing the ban.
– dpa
