Former US president Barack Obama says people have the right to protest when ‘American values are at stake’.
“Citizens exercising their Constitutional right to assemble, organize and have their voices heard by their elected officials is exactly what we expect to see when American values are at stake,”
Trump’s executive orders signed on January 27 blocked all people from Syria, Iraq, Iran, Sudan, Somalia, Libya, and Yemen from entering the US for 90 days, brought a 120-day suspension to America’s refugee programme and an indefinite end to its intake of Syrian refugees, the New York Daily News reported.
Barack Obama said that he was “heartened” by the protests against the latest executive order barring people from seven Muslim-majority countries from entering the US.
Although others, including Democrats and activists, have spoken against the “extreme vetting measures”, it is rare for a former president to criticize his successors.
The former President rejected Trump`s contention that his executive orders restricting travel from the seven predominantly Muslim countries were “similar to what Obama did in 2011 when he banned visas for refugees from Iraq for six months”.
But according to the fact checkers, that comparison is pretty faulty. As NBC News pointed out, Obama’s 2011 order did not ban visas for refugees, who by definition don’t travel on visas. He did tighten the review process for Iraq citizens and for refugees from the six other countries, while Trump’s order is as sweeping ban that applies to nearly every resident and citizen of seven countries, minus the Muslim countries he has done or currently has businesses in.
Barack Obama speaks out against Trump’s policies – Video via Political Clips