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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsFact Checker: Trump's facile claim that his refugee policy is similar to Obama's in 2011
By Glenn Kessler January 29 at 6:15 PM
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The Pinocchio Test
So whats the difference with Trumps action?
First, Obama responded to an actual threat the discovery that two Iraqi refugees had been implicated in bombmaking in Iraq that had targeted U.S. troops. (Iraq, after all, was a war zone.) Under congressional pressure, officials decided to reexamine all previous refugees and impose new screening procedures, which led to a slowdown in processing new applications. Trump, by contrast, issued his executive order without any known triggering threat. (His staff has pointed to attacks unrelated to the countries named in his order.)
Second, Obama did not announce a ban on visa applications. In fact, as seen in Napolitanos answer to Collins, administration officials danced around that question. There was certainly a lot of news reporting that visa applications had slowed to a trickle. But the Obama administration never said it had a policy to halt all applications. Indeed, it is now clear that no ban was put in place. Even so, the delays did not go unnoticed, so there was a lot of critical news reporting at the time about the angst of Iraqis waiting for approval.
Third, Obamas policy did not prevent all citizens of that country, including green-card holders, from traveling to the United States. Trumps policy is much more sweeping, though officials have appeared to pull back from barring permanent U.S. residents.
We have sought comment from the White House and from Obama administration officials and so may update this if more information becomes available. But so far this is worthy of at least Two Pinocchios.
Update: In light of the response from Obama administration officials that there never was a point when Iraqi resettlement was stopped or banned, we are updating this ruling to Three Pinocchios. Iraqi refugee processing was slowed, in response to a specific threat, but it was not halted. The Trump White House, meanwhile, has failed to provide any evidence for its statement.
Three Pinocchios
Full article:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/fact-checker/wp/2017/01/29/trumps-facile-claim-that-his-refugee-policy-is-similar-to-obama-in-2011/?tid=pm_politics_pop&utm_term=.eeaf998650bf