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Ban All Muslims, Ban Some Muslims, Ban Those Muslims, Whatever, Man

What exactly is Trump’s stance on immigration now?

by
Jonathan Zalman
June 28, 2016
Gerardo Mora/Getty Images
Donald Trump hugs the American flag during a campaign rally at the Tampa Convention Center in Tampa, Florida, June 11, 2016. Gerardo Mora/Getty Images
Gerardo Mora/Getty Images
Donald Trump hugs the American flag during a campaign rally at the Tampa Convention Center in Tampa, Florida, June 11, 2016. Gerardo Mora/Getty Images

Welcome back to #TrumpWatch, where Tablet presents the daily low-lights of Donald Trump’s attempt to use the dark forces of bigotry to become President of the United States. Today, let’s look directly at Trump’s xenophobic viewpoints, which—depending on the day of the week, or maybe its the acidity of his breakfast—seem to vary in their level of severity. But make no mistake about it: From the very beginning, Trump’s campaign has been hinged upon threatening to mainstream Islamophobia—that is, by identifying Muslims, particularly immigrants, as a common and violent enemy.

In December, following Trump’s call for a “a total and complete shutdown of Muslims entering the United States” in the wake of the San Bernardino shooting, we wrote:

We aren’t naïve. We know that Islamic terrorism is a problem. We also recognize that with a more liberal immigration policy, fanatics could slip in. But any system not designed first around openness to immigrants and liberties for all citizens is un-American. Ours is a country worth safeguarding, but only because fellow citizens of all ethnicities, and a robust flow of immigrants, keep it that way.

In short, we are diametrically opposed to Trump’s bigotry, and his prejudiced immigration ban. It’s a slippery slope.

But oh what a proposed ban it’s become! Oh, how many iterations the proposed ban seems to have gone through, it seems! In fact, the AP—and a subsequent article on Gawker about Trump’s immigration policy—recently published a timeline of Trump’s evolving Muslim ban, a shifty shifting of words about policy that’s as opaque and confusing as the rest of Trump’s campaign.

Asked to clarify whether Trump still supports a ban on Muslims entering the U.S. as originally proposed, a ban of immigration from countries associated with terrorism, as he said in his post-Orlando speech, or strong vetting of people coming into the country from such nations, as he said this past weekend in Scotland, (campaign spokeswoman Hope) Hicks said: “Mr. Trump stated a position consistent with his speech two weeks ago.”



“He has been very clear,” [Hicks] added in an email Monday. It’s the press, she said, that has “tried to cause confusion.”

Jonathan Zalman is a writer and teacher based in Brooklyn.