Arnold Schwarzenegger: Donald Trump’s Immigration Ban Rollout ‘Makes Us Look Stupid’
There has been no love lost between Arnold Schwarzenegger, a movie star turned politician turned Celebrity Apprentice host, and Donald Trump, a movie cameo-maker turned Celebrity Apprentice host turned politician, in recent months. In early January, Schwarzenegger responded to Trump's tweeted fixation on The New Celebrity Apprentice ratings ("I wish you the best of luck and I hope you’ll work for ALL of the American people as aggressively as you worked for your ratings," the former Republican governor of California wrote). And on Monday (January 31), he joined a combined millions of protestors, celebrities and political leaders worldwide who object to the president's executive order restricting immigration from seven predominantly Muslim countries, suspending admission of any refugees and banning Syrian refugees indefinitely.
"I think the real problem is that it was vetted badly," Schwarzenegger, who is originally from Austria, told Extra's Mario Lopez in an interview. "If they would run this by the Justice Department and Homeland Security and had the lawyers really study and focus on it and give it some time to do it the right way… I know what he's trying to accomplish — his fear about people coming in from other places, causing harm to the country. There is another way to going about it to do it the right way and accomplish all of the goals. I think they were hasty with it."
Critics of Trump's bans have pointed out that the conspirators for 9/11, the largest terrorist attack on American soil, were from Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Lebanon and United Arab Emirates, yet none of those countries are included in Trump's ban (as the Washington Post points out, Trump has business involvements in these countries as well). There have been zero deadly terrorist attacks on American soil by any refugees of the banned countries, nonpartisan site Politifact confirms.
"To go and ban people who have a green card, that means that the United States of America has given you permission to work here permanently and you are on the way to permanent citizenship… I was in that position… It's crazy, it's crazy and makes us look stupid when the White House is ill-prepared to put this kind of executive order out there," Schwarzenegger continued. As New York reports, Trump's order initially overrode the Department of Homeland Security's interpretation that legal green holders affected by the ban would be allowed into the country, but Trump walked back this stricture amid backlash, an ACLU lawsuit and federal court orders.
Schwarzenegger's advice as a former politician who dealt with immigration issues himself? "The laws that stick the longest are the ones when both parties work together."
Watch Arnold's remarks on Donald Trump's immigration executive order below.
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