Alobahy v. Trump, 2017 Travel Ban

 Cidette Rice

Mr. Zhou, Mr. Roddy

GPHC A

9/28/2020


Features of Human Rights Blog


Many Americans involved with politics know that President Trump has been accused of being racist more times than U.S citizens can count. From his avid disapproval of BLM to his ignorance towards Hurricane Maria’s impact on Puerto Rico, the 45th President has made his subtle (and not so subtle) views about people of color quite clear. In one instance, Trump declared executive order 13769, which banned travel to and from Iran, Iraq, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria, and Yemen for roughly the first 2 months of 2017. In addition to the travel ban, Trump suspended the U.S Refugees Admission Program for 120 days, and the Syrian Refugees program indefinitely. Most importantly, during this time period, over 60,000 visas were revoked. 

Out of the seven countries banned, six countries had over a 95% Muslim population, with Syria, at 70% being the exception.

While the order 13769 was executed to prevent terrorism, it’s easy to digress that this ban was excessive and had no basis, especially when the United States Federal Bureau of Intelligence had determined 65% of terrorists in the United States from 1972-2015 had been white, with a vast majority of them being male U.S citizens. Only 13% of that terrorist makeup is middle-eastern* (*not all Muslims are middle-eastern, and not all middle eastern people are Muslims, but since a majority of the travel ban countries mentioned are in the middle east, the connection between the two was made). The reason I bring up the travel ban is that there was a lawsuit filed against Trump due to the inconsistencies of how the travel ban was carried out. Muhammed Alobahy, a Yemeni-American, was expecting his wife and infant child’s arrival to the states in 2017, months after she had gotten her United States visa approved. Due to the Yemeni war and disassembling of the Yemen-U.S embassy, this was no easy feat. While paper evidence saying that their visas were approved, Alobahy’s family could not make their way to the United States due to the sudden dissolution of their previously approved visas. This order directly violates the UDHR on several accounts, such as article 1 (the right to equality and freedom from prejudice on the basis of race, background, religion, etc.), article 7 (All are equal before the law, and a free from any discrimination of the law), article 13 (freedom of movement to and from countries) article 14 (right to seek asylum in other countries), article 15 (right to nationality, and the right to change it), and article 26 (right to education (Alobahy’s child is a United States Citizen, and could not be admitted to a school in Yemen).


Sources:
https://www.un.org/en/universal-declaration-human-rights/
https://ccrjustice.org/Alobahy
https://www.courtlistener.com/docket/8423024/alobahy-v-trump/
https://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2017/02/03/513306413/state-department-says-fewer-than-60-000-visas-revoked-under-travel-order
https://www.fbi.gov/news/stories/fbi-releases-lone-offender-terrorism-report-111319
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Islam_by_country#:~:text=Around%2062%25%20of%20the%20world's,%2C%20and%20India%20(10.9%25).

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