Media not talking about President Obama's ban on Iraqi immigration—because it's another Trump lie

Rss@dailykos.com (mark Sumner) · Monday, January 30, 2017, 6:44 pm

On Sunday, Donald Trump issued a statement defending his Muslim ban.

“My policy is similar to what President Obama did in 2011 when he banned visas for refugees from Iraq for six months. The seven countries named in the Executive Order are the same countries previously identified by the Obama administration as sources of terror.”

Kellyanne Conway complained on Good Morning America that Obama’s “ban” was “never covered in the press.” There’s a good reason for that. Because President Obama never carried out such a ban.

“President Obama never imposed a six-month ban on Iraqi processing. For several months in 2011, there was a lower level of Iraqi resettlement, as the government implemented certain security enhancements. ... there was never a point during that period in which Iraqi resettlement was stopped, or banned.”

After two men who had already entered the country were found to have been involved in actions against US troops in 2005. The men were arrested, the backgrounds of other Iraqi refugees were reexamined, and the rules were made tougher … but there was never a “ban.” Not for six months. Not for six days. And the action that Obama did take, which slowed down but never halted processing of refugees, did not affect Iraqis traveling on green cards.

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