The First 100 Days-Immigration
By: Vishal Veeravelli
Event 1: Executive Order on January 27
This executive order was passed by President Trump on January 27, 2017. This executive order passed a travel ban on 7 middle eastern countries (Iraq, Syria, Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan and Yemen). More specifically, this executive order banned nationals from any of these 7 countries from entering the United States for at least 90 days since the executive order was passed. Also, this executive order stopped all the immigration of refugees into the United States for 4 months. Furthermore, the order calls for more immigration screening procedures as well. This executive order was intended to decrease immigration from "proven" areas of high amounts of terrorism, but was later repealed by multiple federal courts throughout the nation. This was President Trump's first major attempt to decrease immigration into the United States as President, and was met with much backlash and protests.
Event 2: Executive Order on March 6
This executive order was passed roughly 6 weeks after the first executive order on the travel ban. This executive order was passed due to the backlash of the first executive order and as a extension of the first order as well. In this executive order, President Trump bans immigration from six Muslim-majority countries, dropping Iraq from January's previous order, and reinstates a temporary blanket ban on all refugees that was previously passed on the first executive order. However, this execute order exempts citizens of the six banned countries who are legal US permanent residents or have valid visas to enter the US, even those who had their visas revoked due to the first executive order. Although this one was less harsh than the first one, the intention was still the same: to prevent immigration from "areas of high terrorism."
Event 3: First Congressional Address on February 28
What rhetorical strategies does he use?
In both of these executive orders, President Donald Trump repeatedly appeals to emotion, specifically fear, in order to gain support for his actions. He juxtaposes phrases such as "radical Islamic terrorism", and "countless American lives" multiple times in the text of the two executive orders regarding the travel ban. Furthermore, Trump juxtaposes "mass influx of drugs" to the "unprecedented waves of illegal immigration" in order to create a false correlation between the two. He also uses hyperbole in this situation, as he exaggerates the extent of the drug issue. According to Trump, "the amount of drugs in the U.S. is at an all time high" while the real truth is that the amount of drugs being imported into the U.S. is actually at a low since the Pablo Escobar days. Even in the video, Trump explains that he wants to "eradicate lawless criminals" and indirectly associates them with the illegal immigrants of Mexico as he juxtaposes these two issues right next to each other. All of this was purposefully done to evoke fear in the American public due to the many false issues correlating with immigration, so that the public will be more likely to support any move that President Trump makes to resolve these so-called issues. In other words, this sense of fear that Trump masterfully evokes creates a heightened sense of need to resolve this issue as well as increased dependence and reliance on Trump to resolve this issue. Throughout both the executive orders and the video, the tone was always serious, a drastic shift from the more light-hearted days of President Obama. This tone was used to create a sense of urgency regarding the immigration issues that President Trump repeatedly talks about.
Works Cited
"America First Foreign Policy." The White House. The United States Government, 08 Mar. 2017. Web. 22 May 2017.
Ball, Molly. "Donald Trump and the Politics of Fear." The Atlantic. Atlantic Media Company, 02 Sept. 2016. Web. 22 May 2017.
Said-Moorhouse, Lauren. "Every Order Trump Has Signed and What His Actions Mean."CNN. Cable News Network, 10 Feb. 2017. Web. 22 May 2017.
Vogue, Ariane De, Jeremy Diamond, and Kevin Liptak. "Trump Signs New Travel Ban, Exempts Iraq." CNN. Cable News Network, 07 Mar. 2017. Web. 22 May 2017.