Media, Law & Policy

Political Science Researchers on the New Travel Ban

Monday, March 6, 2017, By Ellen Mbuqe

Faculty respond to the newest Executive Order that bans travelers from six countries in the Middle East.

Mehrzad Boroujerdi, Professor and Chair of the Political Science Department at Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs at Syracuse University, had this reaction:

“The revised Executive Order shows that the Trump Administration retreated on the issue of excluding Green Card holders and Iraqi citizens. These are steps in the right direction. However, it has not yet provided any evidence to challenge the Ninth Circuit ruling which stated: ‘The Government has pointed to no evidence that any alien from any of the countries named in the Order has perpetrated a terrorist attack in the United States.’ In short, the revised EO still remains a ‘Muslim ban’ but with certain cosmetic changes,” says Boroujerdi.

Elizabeth Cohen, Associate Professor of Political Science at the Maxwell School, offer these thoughts:

“The new travel ban appears to sidestep some of the glaring obstacles to the legality of the previous ban while still pushing the limits of the discretionary power held by the executive branch over refuge. There still remains no evidence that travelers from the countries on the list pose any kind of unique threat to the security of the US. This is something that opponents of the ban will likely bring back to the attention of the courts,” Cohen says. “In addition, in the past, such temporary entry bans have morphed into semi-permanent bans. Immigration and refuge activists will probably be concerned both with the immediate consequences of freezing refuge, the cuts to annual caps on refuge and the possibility that there will be indefinite extensions to the bans.”

Both Boroujerdi and Cohen are available to speak to the media. Please contact Jessica Smith, director of communications and media relations for the Maxwell School, at jsmith13@syr.edu or 315.443.5492, or Ellen James Mbuqe, director of news and public relations at Syracuse University, at ejmbuqe@syr.edu or 315.443.1897