Best mugshot ever
Attorney General Ken Paxton issued an amicus brief Wednesday expressing his support of President Donald Trump’s travel ban, effectively becoming the first state attorney general to back the controversial executive order.
Under the executive order, travelers from Syria, Iran, Iraq, Yemen, Sudan, Somalia and Libya are barred from entering the United States for the next 90 days. Last month, the ban immediately created chaotic scenes in major airports across the country, where refugees in transit were detained.
“The law makes it very clear that the president has discretion to protect the safety of the American people and our nation’s institutions with respect to who can come into this country,” Paxton said in a news release. “The safety of the American people and the security of our country are President Trump’s major responsibilities under the law.”
A copy of the brief is here. I don’t even know what there is to say at this point, so let me instead highlight this Chron story from a few days ago, for reasons that will be clear in a moment:
The doctor had waited as long as he could.
For days he had been checking news updates between appointments at Texas Children’s Hospital. Waiting to see if the courts or Congress would permanently strike down President Donald Trump’s restrictions on travel to the U.S. from seven Middle Eastern countries. Waiting to see if the administration would put out clear guidelines for those planning to go abroad. Hoping.
Now, Dr. Alireza Shamshirsaz felt he had run out of time, and he needed to break it to them.
He dialed in via Skype early this week, and there they were, staring back at him from Iran: The expectant parents whose babies almost certainly would die because he wouldn’t be coming to operate on them.
Technically, there was nothing stopping his team from making the trip, he told them. But with uncertainty surrounding the president’s travel restrictions — now tied up in federal courts — he and the other doctors weren’t certain they would be able to return to Houston at the end of their 10-day visit, so they canceled their flights.
“It was a disaster,” Shamshirsaz said, recalling separate video chats with two sets of parents who had been expecting him to perform life-saving surgeries next week on their unborn babies – complicated operations no doctors in Iran can do. “They were sobbing, completely and totally devastated. Now there is no hope for them.”
So, thanks to that now-injuncted travel ban that Ken Paxton supports, three unborn babies may now be dead. You’d think that might tug at the conscience of someone who claims to be staunchly pro-life, but apparently not. I guess some babies just don’t count as much as some others. And while it doesn’t have anything directly to do with this litigation, the fact that ICE is now rounding up domestic violence victims for deportation is on Paxton and his fellow Trump enablers as well. The Press and the Dallas Observer have more.
The pro life people don’t care about the death of those babies, most, but not all, simply follow their Sheppard. Bad Sheppard bad sheep.
When half the country, and most of them are Republicans, can’t tell the difference between fact and alternative facts, one cannot expect much from such people.
Kuff:
From your own article “rounding up domestic violence victims” :
“However, ICE authorities revealed Thursday that the woman is a previously deported felon with six deportations and at least eight convictions for crimes including false imprisonment, domestic violence and assault.”
Is this really the “best and brightest” that we need to shield from deportation?
@Neither:
If the doctor really cared about the lives of those patients, he would have made the trip anyway, and take a chance of being inconvenienced at the airport upon return. Sorry, the tearjerker emotion isn’t working. The doctor is free to leave. If the president had, instead, banned people from traveling TO those terrorist hotspots, then we might have something to talk about.
The doctor chose not to go. The doctor is willing to sacrifice those lives in order to get some press time. Who is the real deplorable here?
No Bill your alternative facts only works with people of like minds. Blame the doctor not Trump and the Muslim hating Republicans is that the best that you can come up with?
Trump and all the rest of the unpatriotic Americans that support Trump will bring down this country with their lies and hate.
Using your logic Bill if I fired an arrow that killed a man, it would be the man’s fault for not getting out of the way.
It is not a Muslim ban. The left has lost their mind. I never knew so many White people cared about Somalia. It would be nice if they felt the same about Sunnyside.
Paul keep repeating it is not a Muslim Ban maybe you can convince people with brains.
But to be technically correct it is only a partial Muslim Ban to pander to the Muslim haters.
@ Bill… “The doctor is willing to sacrifice those lives in order to get some press time.” To get some press time ? To what benefit ? Had anyone heard of Dr. Alireza Shamshirsaz up until this point ? Alireza telling Trump [or anyone else] he’s not willing to go to Iran ’cause he’s afraid he won’t be allowed back in the US benefits no one.