I had to sit and ponder this one for a moment. A legal expert is advising President Trump to go slow on his appeal for his executive order on temporarily banning refugees while extreme vetting is put in place. He says Trump should wait for Neil Gorsuch to be confirmed to the Supreme Court, otherwise when it gets there, the ruling is likely to be 4-4. Gorsuch would make it 5-4. He’s recommending following Germany’s lead of putting ankle bracelets for tracking on the refugees.
I suppose that makes logical sense, because the Supreme Court ruling would be definitive. However, ankle bracelets can be removed and frequently are. Then the refugees would just disappear into their network, probably protected by Catholic charities and Muslim advocates. So, I’m torn here. In the end, this is what President Trump may be forced to do. It’s a crappy choice that is going to have negative results one way or the other. It’s almost a Hobson’s Choice.
From the Washington Examiner:
President Trump and his Justice Department are being urged to go slow on appealing a court’s rejection of their travel ban and follow Germany’s example and put GPS ankle bracelets on visitors from the seven targeted nations until a final decision is made.
A prominent legal expert said that the administration should wait to appeal until Supreme Court nominee Neil Gorsuch gets to the court, giving Trump a 5-4 majority and in the meantime put the tracking devices on any refugee or visitor.
“Going to the Supreme Court now could result in a widely predicted 4-4 decision,” warned George Washington University Law Professor John Banzhaf.
Wait instead, he urged, and in the meantime look to Germany’s model of using trackers on those it suspects of having terror ties — not all refugees.
“Imposing such conditions on admission is fully consistent with 8 USC 1182(f) which expressly gives the president the authority to ‘impose on the entry of aliens any restrictions he may deem to be appropriate.’ It is also more likely to be upheld since it is far less objectionable than a total ban,” he said.
Ankle bracelets have been widely used by law enforcement and immigration agencies. Banzhaf is suggesting that their use can be expanded and would be accepted by the nation. “There have now been several major terrorist incidents in which authorities pointed out that they were suspicious of the perpetrator, but did not have sufficient information to arrest him, nor the vast resources necessary to provide effective surveillance of everyone under suspicion. GPS systems incorporated in ankle bracelets permit one agent to track hundreds of suspects in real time, and provide computer generated alerts if he goes anywhere suspicious (e.g., near a nuclear power plant), meets with other persons likewise wearing ankle monitors,” he said.
But what if they are smart enough to remove it and run before the deed is noticed and caught? What if they don’t care if they have it on because they are going to die a martyr’s death anyway? As I said, it’s a Hobson’s Choice, one that Trump will have to make and it may be the only real alternative. But it is far from the best one, which is to not let them in in the first place until they are thoroughly vetted.
Terresa Monroe-Hamilton is an editor and writer for Right Wing News. She owns and blogs at NoisyRoom.net. She is a Constitutional Conservative and NoisyRoom focuses on political and national issues of interest to the American public. Terresa is the editor at Trevor Loudon's site, New Zeal - trevorloudon.com. She also does research at KeyWiki.org. You can email Terresa here. NoisyRoom can be found on Facebook and on Twitter.