Amid widespread opposition to President Donald Trump’s executive order halting immigration, many conservatives in Alaska are expressing support for the measure. But not without some reservations.
During a press conference in Juneau Monday morning, Senate President Pete Kelly was asked about the order by a reporter from the Juneau Empire. Kelly responded that the temporary ban on immigration from seven Muslim-majority countries affects a small group of just over a hundred people.
“It’s a pretty limited restriction on immigration,” Kelly said. He added that it isn’t the kind of issue the state senate has much influence over.
“It’s not in our purview. But that’s my opinion, is that it’s pretty limited,” Kelly said. “If we can’t determine who comes into our country based on terrorist activity and those things that are a threat to national security, we’ve got bigger problems than we thought we did.”
Among conservative commentators on Monday, enthusiasm varied even if general support did not. Many Republican and conservative political groups had not mentioned the order on their social media accounts.
Former GOP spokesperson and blogger Suzanne Downing wrote that the policy delivers on what Trump promised to do while campaigning.
Downing pointed out in her weekly newsletter that Trump’s cap on refugees at 50,000 people a year was a target considered high under the George W. Bush Administration.
While characterizing protests over the weekend as “predictable and hysterical,” Downing criticized the implementation of the policy as “ham-fisted,” writing that the rapid timeframe undermined the measure’s overall aims.
During his mid-day radio program on KFQD in Anchorage, conservative talk show host Dave Stieren said that while detractors see the policy as racist and xenophobic, many proponents see it as a logical first step to halt potential terrorist threats, one without any explicit discrimination.
“First of all the myths: this is a ban on Muslims,” Stieren said. “Come on kids. (If) President Trump wanted to ban Muslims he would have banned people traveling from France, from Saudi Arabia, from Singapore, from Indonesia…It is not a ban on Muslims. Is it a ban that affects people from seven predominantly Muslim nations? Yes.”
But Stieren stopped far short of a full-throated endorsement, casting doubt on whether the measure would actually work in fulfilling it’s main goal: national security.
“Does it make this nation safer? That is a tough one for me to buy,” Stieren said. “Usually you point to a threat, a clear and present danger.”
Zachariah Hughes reports on city & state politics, arts & culture, drugs, and military affairs in Anchorage and South Central Alaska.
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