Lots of interesting points made on this thread.
Has anyone heard about the rumors of WMD materials that have been smuggled into Europe and the ISIS trained specialists that will use them are mixed in with the refugees?
That very real possibility changes the “Tone” for sure!
If the Don is two steps ahead, and I think he is, then maybe a WMD attack, somewhere, is imminent. Or maybe more than one and here.
I would remind everybody that this is a discussion about what a President Trump might do in January 2017. If anyone hears about his policy and thinks, “well, would that not strand honest or non-violent Muslims outside the country, without legal justification?” then that’s a question that cannot be answered either way until January 2017. Any smart law-abiding Muslim will be careful not to travel outside the U.S.A. if they know that Trump is winning (and remember, there are eleven weeks between election day and the inauguration).
So on that basis, I am less concerned about the constitutionality of this concept than if an already existing President Trump just sprang it on travelling, law-abiding citizens. It is code for “we are going to start checking very carefully why you are travelling to certain countries” and that is long overdue as shown by the events in San Bernadino.
I agree that Trump needs to filter a bit and match up his policies with real problems, at some point measures overly draconian will not help the situation, they will hurt the security environment. There is no point in alienating large numbers of people who had no agenda of harm, if it can be avoided with a more targeted approach. I would have advised him to announce a policy of perhaps up to two-day interrogation where necessary, for all returning travellers to a list of countries, that would send the same signal but without the negatives.
On the other hand, there is no telling what sort of a mess national security may be in by the general election period or the inauguration. So to some extent, a lot of this sort of discussion is pointless. There could be changes for the worse or (hard to see how) for the better in the meantime.