Phoebe Barr ’19: Since being sworn in as President on January 20th, Donald Trump has issued several executive orders concerning promises he made while on the campaign trail. These orders have ranged from a withdrawal from the Trans-Pacific Partnership agreement to the blocking of refugees from several Middle Eastern countries from coming to the United States. Student reactions have been similarly varied.
Two executive orders have been signed regarding the US-Mexico border, the first one concerning a wall or “physical barrier” along the border, and the second concerning hiring 10,000 more immigration officers and no longer offering federal grant money to “sanctuary cities,” or cities that will not deport undocumented immigrants. Trump has proposed a 20% tax on Mexican imports to pay for the wall, but this suggestion has been met mostly with criticism. Both orders still must be approved by Congress. Vestry member Patrick Zhang ‘18 considered the plan ineffective, “it’s not going to stop illegal immigration,” he said. “When illegal immigrants come in, it’s not actually through the Mexico-US border. A lot of the time they come in legally at first but then they overstay their green card.” Student council member Robbie Copit ‘19, however, had a different perspective. He said that he was “fine with a border wall. To consider yourself a country, you need a secure border.”
Trump’s second two executive actions were orders to resume construction of the Keystone XL and Dakota Access pipelines. Keystone XL was halted over environmental concern in 2015. Karissa Lim ‘20, acknowledged that Trump was “acting like a businessman,” and that his plan “doesn’t really care about environment. If it brings money, then sure, let’s build it.” However, the Dakota Access pipeline’s construction was set to be redirected amidst furious protest because its course ran through Native American land. McKee Bond ‘19 said, “I feel really bad for the people who live there and the tribes. They were protesting this for like eight months, and Obama finally said that they wouldn’t put the pipeline in, and then Trump just comes in and does it right away.” These orders need to be approved by the State Department before being put into action, but not by all of Congress.
In a further attempt to live up to his word on the campaign trail, Trump has also taken steps toward weakening the Affordable Care Act. According to BBC world news, Trump’s order “states that agencies must ‘waive, defer, grant exemptions from, or delay’ any portions of the Affordable Care Act that creates financial burden on states, individuals or healthcare providers.” This was in response to the rising health care premiums related to the Affordable Care Act. This order must be approved by Congress. Schuyler Kresge ‘18 called it a “critical step” in weakening the Affordable Care Act, and that “the act itself doesn’t put anyone in danger and it doesn’t really do anything until a replacement is in order.”
President Trump has issued many other executive actions, such as an order to reduce federal hiring, a withdrawal from the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade agreement, and an order forbidding any foreign non-governmental organization that receives American funding to provide or advocate for abortion. None of these require any approval.
The most controversial and talked-about action of Trump’s so far has been his suspension of the immigration of refugees from Syria or anyone from the countries of Yemen, Syria, Iraq, Iran, Sudan, Somalia, and Libya. Although Robbie Copit ‘19 points out that “this policy does fall in line with the “america first” theme of his presidency,” and asserts that “we’re right to have suspicion and try to protect ourselves from possible terrorism,” many students are reacting very strongly against the order. Brooke Kraftson ‘19 called it “extremely unconstitutional” and “against everything our country stands for.” McKee Bond ‘19 said that “People have the wrong idea” and that “if they actually educate themselves, they’ll see that immigrants bring a lot to this country,” and Emma Sargeant said that the order “struck me as morally reprehensible.”
Federal judges and legal rulings have currently put a halt to the order, but it had already been acted upon. Flights bound for the United States were blocked from taking off, and immigrants landing in the United States were blocked from leaving their flights. Trump claimed vehemently that this was “not a Muslim ban, as the media is falsely reporting.” However, he said that he would give priority to Christians living in the blocked countries because of the religious persecution against them.
Schuyler Kresge said that he “kind of understood what he (Trump) was trying to do,” but disagreed with “the way he attempted to implement things. He needed to take it slower and work on it a little bit more.” However, he maintained that the order was “acceptable, because we’ve done it before,” pointing out travel restrictions that President Obama had placed on Iraqi refugees in 2011. “Trump is such a polarizing candidate that whenever he was going to bring this up, it was automatically going to be unpopular,” he said.
Emma Sargeant saw things from a different perspective. “Imagine if you had fled some horrific situation,” she said, “and left everything behind. You were never going to see your home again, much of your extended family and friends you were never going to see again, they might die, and you would never see them, you had to leave behind the graves of your parents and your grandparents in another country. And you chose this because you wanted to keep your immediate family safe and you wanted to stay safe yourself. And finally after much waiting and fear, you got accepted to go to another country, and you got on the plane, and you landed, and you felt this euphoria.” She began to grow visibly upset. “Oh my gosh, I’ve made it out. I’m safe. And then all of a sudden you were told to get back on the plane and turn around and go back. Imagine what those people would feel.”
Donald Trump has been using his powers of executive action to an unprecedented degree during his first days in office. It remains to be seen how the country will develop over the course of his presidency. Whether students agree with his policies or not, Patrick Zhang conceded that “it shows that he wasn’t just saying stuff so he could win. He’s living up to his word.”