TOW #22 - "Detentions and Travel Orders"

Often times when a new president comes into power, he makes a series of off-the-bat decisions that ultimately help people rate his first 100 days as president. In his first days, President Donald Trump signed the Muslim Ban preventing people from seven predominantly Muslim countries from traveling into the U.S. Later, it was revised, dropping Iran from the list and allowing persons with visas or permanent residents from the remaining six countries to enter the U.S. In his “Detentions and Travel Orders”, Justin Sablich presents the effects of Trump’s travel ban using stories and statistics to how it is not good for the U.S.

Sablich wanted to bring to light effects of the travel ban that weren’t so obvious. Many unfortunate situations have occurred due to the travel ban. Many important Muslim figures who often travel to and from the U.S. have been stopped and unnecessarily questioned. Another incident happened with a man who had been working for the U.S. in Afghanistan for 10 years. He and his family were held for 4 days. Sablich includes these stories to exhibit the extreme inconvenience that people are feeling because of this travel ban. It has made it possible to unnecessarily question innocent people strictly because of their religion and appearance.

Because of stories like these and connotations of the Muslim Ban, international travel into the U.S. has noticeably gone down. Trump’s ban creates the belief that the U.S. is not as friendly of a nation as it is thought to be. Since most other major countries accept Syrian refugees, the U.S. having a Muslim Ban sticks out. This sore thumb has caused numbers of travel into the U.S. to go down. “Flight searches remained down about 10 percent in comparison to the same period a year earlier.” With hard statistics such as this, Sablich can appeal to logos after appealing to pathos with the stories. He mentions how large of an industry travel is and how a decrease in travel can affect the industry and potentially hurt America’s economy.

Logical facts and heart-wrenching stories allowed Sablich to show the negative effects of President Trump’s travel ban. Hopefully, some positive changes can be made going into the rest of Mr. Trump’s presidency.

Detentions and Travel Orders Coincide With Dip in Interest in Coming to America