Racism and bigotry that demeans US - America’s ban on immigrants

PRESIDENT Trump and his alt-right inner circle may be indifferent to how the world views the way they are demeaning America but even a superpower’s well-being depends on relationships and treaties entered into with good intentions and trust. 

These relationships sustain us all but if we can’t rely on long-established, mutually beneficial agreements our world will be a very different, far more fragmented and volatile place. Today, such disunity equates with vulnerability.

Mr Trump has long made public his contempt for the post-war engineering of international relations, a contempt he articulated with something pretty close to boorishness at his inauguration. That Mr Trump has developed this opinion without having any worthwhile experience of international relations suggests he will view the deep distaste provoked by his inhuman ban on citizens of seven countries entering the US as a badge of honour.

A litany of world figures has expressed profound dismay. German Chancellor Angela Merkel spoke to him on Saturday night and “explained” the obligations the Geneva Convention demands on refugees. French president François Hollande said that defending democratic principles required compliance with “the principles on which it is founded, in particular, the acceptance of refugees”. Italy’s prime minister, Paolo Gentiloni, said his country was committed to “open society; plural identity; no discrimination.” Pope Francis condemned the faith of those people who call themselves Christians by being merciless to refugees and people belonging to other faiths; in a clear challenge he declared: “The sickness or, you can say the sin, that Jesus condemns most is hypocrisy, which is precisely what is happening when someone claims to be a Christian but does not live according to the teaching of Christ. You cannot be a Christian without living like a Christian.”

Mr Trump may, for a time at least, shout down opposition but America is dotted with protests and, closer to home, over a million people have signed a petition in Britain opposing his planned visit. No one expected Mr Trump’s presidency to be without drama but it is shocking that one of his very first orders was to close America to some of the world’s poor and destitute — especially as far more Americans have died at the hands of their heavily armed fellow citizens — some 13,286 in 2015 — than have ever been killed by terrorists.

Despite all of this, Taoiseach Enda Kenny insists the traditional St Patrick’s Day visit to the White House can go ahead, that there are no consequences to this knee-bending to the man who might authorise torture. Not only should Mr Kenny not go, he should, as long as this ban lasts, deny American immigration services the opportunity to impose this racist, bigoted and inhuman order at Irish airports. Mr Trump is painting America’s friends into a corner, asking us to choose between him and ideas far more noble: the principles of hope and charity, of decency and humanity. Some centuries ago Edmund Burke captured an eternal truth: “The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.” Tragically, we are at such a moment again.