(Image source from: News.com.au)
United States president Donald Trump's travel ban separated the Supreme Court just as it did ordinary Americans, opening an ideological fissure between those who see it as a safeguard against chaos and act of terrorism, and those who say it betrays the country's history of sheltering those who need it most.
The court's 5-4 determination on the ban, which bars citizens of Syria, Libya, Iran, Yemen, Somalia, Venezuela and North Korea from entering the country, staggered refugees in Connecticut who had hoped to bring relatives to the United States from some of the world's most ferocious corners.
Merely others in the state applaud the court's decision last Tuesday as affirming Trump's point of view that the world is a chaotic, unsafe place, and that the country needs to first defend itself before letting in others.
"The decision was the correct one, it should have been unanimous," said Harold Harris, a retired engineer, libertarian and Trump supporter. "The president, no matter who he is, has a great deal of authority over who comes into the country."
The ban, the third iteration of a mandate unveiled just weeks after the president's inauguration, will most affect Syrians fleeing civil war, said Chris George, director of Integrated Refugee and Immigrant Services in New Haven.
Since admitting more than 15,000 Syrians in 2016, the State Department's refugee resettlement program has "ground to a halt," George said. Just 16 Syrians have been resettled this year, according to department records. For refugees already living in the country, Tuesday's verdict all but extinguished their hopes of bringing their relatives to the United States.
Chaghlil, 36, had hoped to bring his mother and sister to the United States, but when Trump rolled out the travel ban just two months after he arrived in New Haven, "it was a shock," he said. "We expected Americans to think of us as people who needed help, not people to be afraid of."
For Robert MacGuffie, the founder of a conservative Fairfield political action group, the country's tradition of harboring refugees should never take precedence over national security.
By Sowmya Sangam
