Chaldean Bishop: Trump Has No Reason to Apologize for Immigration Policy

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SAN DIEGO (ChurchMilitant.com) - A California Chaldean Bishop is speaking in favor of President Donald Trump's temporary immigration ban from seven Muslim-majority countries.

On February 17, Bp. Bawai Soro told reporters, "Mr. Trump has no one to apologize to for his immigration doctrine for the simple reason that coming to America is not a right but a privilege."

The comments come as John Kelly, Homeland Security secretary, said over the weekend that the White House was working on a "tighter, more streamlined version of the first executive order."

The first executive order was struck down by the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. The notoriously liberal court wrote in its opinion that the executive order "runs contrary to the fundamental structure of our constitutional democracy."

Bishop Soro commented, "This executive order is applied to refugees coming from those seven countries, whether Muslim, Christian or Jew. This is not a Muslim ban, especially because 90 percent of the world's Muslims are not included."

Another report, published in February by the Center for Immigration Studies, reveals 72 individuals — who have immigrated from the seven countries placed on a temporary immigration ban by President Trump — have been tried and convicted of terrorism since the Twin Tower attacks of 9/11.

Bishop Soro, himself an immigrant from Iraq, added, "American politicians cannot play with such fire because the losers will be the American people everywhere. Even Syrian President Bashar Assad said recently that there definitely are terrorists who sneak into asylum countries from Syria pretending to be refugees."

Speaking about the refugee crisis in America, Assad told reporters on February 10, "This is an American issue, and it's related to the sovereignty of the American nation. Every country has the right to put any regulations to enter their country."

Bishop Soro concluded:

If the experience of terrorism on 9/11 was caused by Chinese people, the ban would have been imposed on China; if it were South Americans coming from South America, the ban would have been on South American nations; again, if it were Africans coming from Africa, the ban would have been on African countries. But it is an established fact that since the mid-1990s, almost all terrorists were radical Muslim jihadists from the Middle East. More importantly, the seven countries are nations presently undergoing internal wars and have lost bureaucratic control of their populations, rendering American consulates unable to check the background of refugees, verify and properly vet every claim made to come to America; jihadists cannot be slipping in our land.

Bishop Soro's comments stand in stark contrast to liberal prelates from the Latin Rite of the Catholic Church who have described President Trump's actions as "un-Christian."

The USCCB released a statement titled "USCCB Committee On Migration Chair Strongly Opposes Executive Order Because It Harms Vulnerable Refugee And Immigrant Familiesdded. "[W]e need to protect all our brothers and sisters of all faiths, including Muslims who have lost family, home and country," the statement read. "They are children of God and are entitled to be treated with human dignity."

There is little mention, however, of the rights of nations to protect their sovereignty or the rights of citizens to protect themselves from the threat of terrorism.

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