Executive outrage: ‘Muslim ban’ facts don’t match the hype

America has gone into a tizzy since President Trump signed an executive order to halt immigration from several countries while the government develops what it says is a better vetting process.

The order has caused massive fallout. But I don’t know how much of the outrage has to do with the actual order or the rollout.

{mosads}Everything happened quickly, and without much warning. This opened the Trump administration to criticism. The media latched onto it — they knew that people wouldn’t actually read the order, allowing them to cause mass hysteria and use incorrect terms to describe the order. 

Even some of Trump’s supporters in Congress criticized the rollout. Sen. James Inhofe (R-Okla.) stated that Trump’s team “should have delayed implementation of this order so that the agencies, airlines and foreign travelers could have prepared and made arrangements in compliance.” 

Homeland Security Committee Chairman Michael McCaul (R-Texas) agreed, saying “such policy changes should be better coordinated with the agencies implementing them and with Congress to ensure we get it right.”

We filed suit against @RealDonaldTrump‘s #MuslimBan https://t.co/pcs3TM4qqq

— ACLU National (@ACLU) January 28, 2017

Trump immediately retorted back that if he had given notice, all of those “bad” people would have rushed into the states. 

The order immediately caused massive chaos at airports — and I’m not just talking about the protests. On Saturday, agents with the Department of Homeland Security had their hands full. These agents “stopped 109 foreigners at U.S. airports” and “prevented another 173 people from boarding flights.” The only ones allowed through had green cards or “special visas for Iraqi and Afghan interpreters.”

It also caused confusion at the U.S. border in Houston. Immigration lawyer Mana Yegani said that many of customs and border patrol agents had no idea the government would implement the executive order. Yegani and her colleagues spent all night weeding through the confusion and helping those affected.

Everybody is arguing whether or not it is a BAN. Call it what you want, it is about keeping bad people (with bad intentions) out of country!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) February 1, 2017

The order also caused backlash from our European allies, who we all know did not want Trump to win the presidency. 

The move gave them an excuse to criticize Donald Trump and America. French Foreign Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault, for example, told a press conference that the order worries French officials, and that as a Western country, America has an obligation to welcome those “who flee war and oppression.”

Newcastle, Glasgow, Manchester, London. The United Kingdom says no to your #MuslimBan @realDonaldTrump. pic.twitter.com/MjWhe5fANX

— Liam Young (@liamyoung) January 30, 2017

Iran, one of the seven countries banned, showed frustration with the order. The foreign ministry said the country would take “legal, political and reciprocal measures accordingly.” A few days later, Iran performed a ballistic missile test in Semnan. The West said that the test violated United Nations Resolution 2231, which states that the country cannot conduct these missile tests. Iran fired back, saying these missiles do not count because they cannot “carry a nuclear warhead.” 

The United Nations then used the order to guilt-trip America. The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees and International Organization for Migration insisted Trump continue to allow refugees to settle in America, saying our “resettlement program is one of the most important in the world.” UNHCR spokeswoman Vannina Maestracci said that those who resettle in America “are some of the most vetted individuals entering the United States.” 

It’s often difficult find the facts among the hysteria. It’s quite sickening when it happens on an important topic such as this.

Chastain is a contributing editor at Legal Insurrection, where she covers international news, with a focus on Ukraine and Russia. Follow her on Twitter @mchastain81

The views of contributors are their own and are not the views of The Hill.