What you need to know about the terrorist threat from foreigners and Trump’s executive order
The executive branch has broad discretion through this authority. In 2015, the Supreme Court ruled that the government can deny someone a visa on national security grounds without a specific reason.
Interestingly, it was a fear of communists that drove Congress to give this power to the president more than six decades ago. President Harry S. Truman vetoed the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1952 — and in a lengthy statement, he cited concerns about broad powers being granted to the executive branch, even to “minor immigration and consular officials.”
.. Truman wrote in his veto statement: It repudiates our basic religious concepts, our belief in the brotherhood of man, and in the words of St. Paul that “there is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond nor free …. for ye are all one in Christ Jesus.”
But Congress overrode Truman with a bipartisan veto-proof majority.
.. Of about 400 individuals charged with or credibly involved in jihad-inspired activity in the U.S. since 9/11, just under half (197) were U.S.-born citizens, according to research by the nonpartisan think tank New America Foundation. An additional 82 were naturalized citizens, and 44 were permanent residents.
“Far from being foreign infiltrators, the large majority of jihadist terrorists in the United States have been American citizens or legal residents. Moreover, while a range of citizenship statuses are represented, every jihadist who conducted a lethal attack inside the United States since 9/11 was a citizen or legal resident.
.. Trump’s executive order applies to migrants, refugees and U.S. green-card holders from seven countries: Iraq, Iran, Sudan, Somalia, Syria, Libya and Yemen. That means the order would not have prevented some of the most high-profile terrorist attacks by individuals from countries excluded from that list, including the 9/11 hijackers, the San Bernardino attackers and the Boston Marathon bombers.
.. “The threat to the U.S. homeland from refugees has been relatively low. Almost none of the major terrorist plots since 9/11 have involved refugees. Even in those cases where refugees were arrested on terrorism-related charges, years and even decades often transpired between their entry into the United States and their involvement in terrorism. In most instances, a would-be terrorist’s refugee status had little or nothing to do with their radicalization and shift to terrorism.”
