Each week the editorial board reflects on a current issue in Our View. The position taken does not reflect the opinions of everyone on the Hilltop Views staff. This week’s editorial board is composed of Viewpoints Editors Sully Lockett and Kenny Phipps and Editor-in-Chief Rosemond Crown

President Donald Trump’s executive order to ban the immigration of citizens from seven Muslim-majority countries into the United States is a toxic and xenophobia-fueled decision pandering to his supporters that will have immediate and negative ramifications for America, both at home and abroad.

The ban affects all citizens with any visa status from seven countries – Iraq, Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria and Yemen. It also bans all immigrants from Syria indefinitely. Additionally all green card holders from the banned countries, who are permanent residents of the United States, but not yet citizens, will no longer be able to return. The ban has also affected citizens of other nations, including allies like the United Kingdom or Canada, who hold dual citizenship in any of the proscribed countries.

The impact has been widespread and varied, with supporters of Trump applauding the move, saying that it is making the country safer. Others have vocally decried the decision, calling it racist, idiotic and counterproductive. Many U.S. companies have recalled foreign workers, and protesters in the thousands descended on major airports across the country, including here in Austin.

Many institutions, including the American Civil Liberties Union and Acting Attorney General Sally Q. Yates, protested the move, decrying it as illegal and that American officials should disregard any orders to defend the legality of the maneuver. The administration relieved Yates of her position on the evening of Jan. 30, saying that she had ‘betrayed’ the administration.

Not one single terrorist attack on American soil in the years since 9/11 has been carried out by immigrants from any of the countries affected by Trump’s action, according to the Institute for National Security and Counterterrorism at Syracuse University.

Additionally, 15 of the 19 hijackers in the 9/11 attacks were from Saudi Arabia, ostensibly allied with the United States. The other four were from the United Arab Emirates, Lebanon and Egypt. All four of these countries are conspicuously left out of the executive order along with other Muslim-majority nations where Trump has business ties. He has no financial affiliations with the countries affected by the ban. ( http://wapo.st/2kawhUG).

On Jan. 28 the State Department updated travel warnings for Americans visiting Turkey — a nation already plagued by repeated terrorist attacks in the past months. The department stated that “an increase in anti-American rhetoric has the potential to inspire independent actors to carry out acts of violence against US citizens.”

While there is no viable explanation as to why a group of people should be targeted and banned from the U.S. simply because of their religious affiliation, not having Turkey on the ban list only goes to show how arbitrary and illogical the ban is.

The Syrian refugee crisis, one of the largest since the Holocaust, will only be exacerbated by these new restrictions. Even with countries like Canada vowing to attempt to pick up the slack from such a decrease in humanitarian aid from the U.S., the toll is going to be immediate and heavy. Various leaders have already publicly decried the ban, under which Christian immigrants and refugees will be given priority status. This is a flagrantly unconstitutional and un-American trait of an already appalling executive order, one that even Christian leaders have denounced.

Also affected by the ban are interpreters who have worked with the U.S. military in crucial and incredible ways. These interpreters knew that their actions supporting American forces in Iraq and Afghanistan and elsewhere would threaten their lives and those of their families. They deserve entry to our country. Trump himself never had the courage to serve in an armed service, gaining four draft deferments during the Vietnam War.

For Trump to ban immigrants from war torn countries who have never personally done harm to our nation, while leaving travel open from countries who have directly financed or supported terrorism against us is suspicious at best and undisputedly corrupt at worst. It says to us that Trump is not working for the best interests of the American people; that he only seeks to secure his own interest and his vainglory.

This is is not what our nation wants or needs in this incredibly tumultuous and complicated period in history.