Trump on immigration ban: 'Call it what you want'
President Donald Trump has jumped into the controversy surrounding how to refer to executive order on immigration and refugees.
"Everybody is arguing whether or not it is a BAN," Trump wrote on Twitter Wednesday morning. "Call it what you want, it is about keeping bad people (with bad intentions) out of country!"
Many news outlets — including Business Insider — have referred to the executive order as an "immigration ban" or "travel ban."
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Many of Trump's critics have labeled it a "Muslim ban," as the seven countries targeted — while being identified as terror hotspots — are majority Muslim. Homeland Security Secretary John Kelly disputed that tag Tuesday.
White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer maintained during a briefing Tuesday that the policy was not a "ban," but rather an "extreme vetting" system.
Trump had previously referred to his policy as a ban in a tweet Monday:
If the ban were announced with a one week notice, the "bad" would rush into our country during that week. A lot of bad "dudes" out there!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 30, 2017
When a reporter noted at Tuesday's press briefing that Trump had used the word "ban" to describe the order, Spicer claimed the president was simply "using the words that the media is using."
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Spicer has also referred to the executive order as a ban, as CNN anchor Jake Tapper pointed out on his show Tuesday.
The executive order bars for 90 days people from Sudan, Syria, Iraq, Iran, Somalia, Yemen, and Libya — countries identified by former President Barack Obama's administration as especially terror prone — from entering the US. It also bars all refugees for 120 days, and bars Syrian refugees indefinitely.
It caused chaos in airports and led to widespread protests last weekend. Federal judges in four states issued a temporary stay on Saturday preventing authorities from deporting travelers who were stuck in airports because of the order, but the long-term legality of the measure remains unclear.
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