Donald Trump also promised to increase the ban on travel from “terrorist-ridden countries.” (File)
Clive, Iowa:
Donald Trump vowed Monday that if he is re-elected president, he will ban immigrants who support Hamas from entering the U.S. and send officers to pro-Hamas protests to arrest and detain immigrants who publicly support the Palestinian militant group deport.
During a campaign stop in Iowa, Trump responded to Hamas’ killing of at least 1,300 Israelis that set off a war in which Palestinian health officials say Israel has killed more than 2,800 Palestinians in Gaza.
Trump, president from 2017-2021, said that if elected to the White House for a second term, he would ban entry into the US for anyone who does not believe in Israel’s right to exist and revoke the visas of foreign students who are ‘anti-Semitic’.
He also promised to step up the ban on travel from “terror-affected countries.” He did not explain how he would enforce his demands, including the demand that immigrants support Israel’s right to exist under what he called “strong ideological screening.”
Many of Trump’s immigration policies have been challenged in court during his presidency, and his latest promises could also face challenges.
A ban he imposed on immigrants from some Muslim-majority countries was overturned by lower courts but ultimately upheld by the U.S. Supreme Court. Biden ended that ban when he took office.
Trump said Monday he would ban immigrants from Libya, Somalia, Syria and Yemen “or anywhere else that threatens our security.” Trump also read a poem comparing immigrants to deadly snakes.
Jaime Harrison, chairman of the Democratic National Committee, described Trump’s promises as Islamophobic, extreme and designed to exploit “fear and anxiety.”
Iowa is one of the first states to host a Republican presidential nomination. A crackdown on immigrants was a cornerstone of Trump’s first term as president.
He is the front-runner to win his party’s White House nomination and face Democratic President Joe Biden in the November 2024 elections.
Trump vowed to drastically tighten U.S. immigration laws, saying: “If you want to abolish the state of Israel, you are disqualified, if you support Hamas or the ideology behind Hamas, you are disqualified, and if you are a communist, Marxist or fascist, you are disqualified.”
Most of Trump’s Republican rivals have condemned Hamas and offered full support for an expected Israeli invasion of Gaza, but none have laid out such a tough set of proposals to keep people out of the US and drive Hamas sympathizers out of the US.
The United States, along with several other countries, have designated Hamas as a terrorist organization.
Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, one of Trump’s Republican rivals for the presidential nomination, said Monday that he supports the deportation of foreign students who support Hamas and that he would ban Gaza refugees from entering the US if he were to become president. are chosen.
Trump last week accused Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of being unprepared for the Hamas attacks and called Hezbollah – the Iran-backed Lebanese militant group – “very smart.”
His comments in Iowa appeared to be partly an attempt to soften that criticism.
“We will aggressively deport resident aliens with jihadist sympathies,” Trump said.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by DailyExpertNews staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
