Elon Musk really wants to believe that he can work with Donald Trump. As a member of the new administration’s economic advisory board, Musk thinks he has an inside track to be a good influence. And now he’d like your suggestions for amending the president’s unlawful executive order on immigration.
Yesterday evening, Musk joined other tech executives in voicing his very softly worded opinions about the order on Twitter. “The blanket entry ban on citizens from certain primarily Muslim countries is not the best way to address the country’s challenges,” he wrote. See, it’s not “the best” and he’d like to make it better. He followed that this afternoon by tweeting an open call to hit him up with suggestions:
Please read immigration order. Lmk specific amendments. Will seek advisory council consensus & present to President. https://t.co/qLpbsP4lEk
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) January 29, 2017
This is great, Elon. We know that you’re scheduled to meet with the president on Friday because your fellow adviser Travis Kalanick said that was the case in his statement, yesterday.
Elon linked to this paywalled Wall Street Journal breakdown of the ban, but you can read it here for free. It’s a little on the long side and quite tedious to read. It codifies some entirely unnecessary things like, “It is the policy of the United States to protect its citizens from foreign nationals who intend to commit terrorist attacks in the United States.” There are like 8 billion laws on the books that make it clear that the U.S. isn’t especially fond of terrorists. But, thankfully, the BBC has bullet-ed out some key takeaways:
- A suspension of the US Refugee Admissions Programme for 120 days
- An indefinite ban on Syrian refugees
- A 90-day suspension on anyone arriving from seven Muslim-majority countries – Iraq, Syria, Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, and Yemen. Some visa categories, such as diplomats and the UN, are not included in the suspension
- Priority will be given to religious minorities facing persecution in their countries. In an interview, Mr Trump singled out Christians in Syria
- A cap of 50,000 refugees to be accepted in 2017, against a limit of 110,000 set by former President Barack Obama
- A suspension of the Visa Interview Waiver Program, which allows consular officers to exempt some applicants from face-to-face interviews if they are seeking to renew their temporary visas within a year of expiry
- Exceptions could be made on a case-by-case basis
It’s well known that Trump doesn’t like getting bogged down in details so if Elon really wants to get the commander-in-chiefs attention, we highly suggest keeping the proposed amendments simple. Just print this out and present it to him.
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A suspension of the US Refugee Admissions Programme for 120 days -
An indefinite ban on Syrian refugees -
A 90-day suspension on anyone arriving from seven Muslim-majority countries – Iraq, Syria, Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, and Yemen. Some visa categories, such as diplomats and the UN, are not included in the suspension -
Priority will be given to religious minorities facing persecution in their countries. In an interview, Mr Trump singled out Christians in Syria -
A cap of 50,000 refugees to be accepted in 2017, against a limit of 110,000 set by former President Barack Obama -
A suspension of the Visa Interview Waiver Program, which allows consular officers to exempt some applicants from face-to-face interviews if they are seeking to renew their temporary visas within a year of expiry -
Exceptions could be made on a case-by-case basis
It’s very important that this be printed. Trump likes his info in hard copy format unless it’s on Twitter. The subject line on the memo should look just like this: Protecting the Nation From Foreign Terrorist Entry Into the United States. That will take care of any particulars we’ve overlooked.
Those are our suggestions for tightening up this illegal violation of countless people’s rights — make sure to send yours along. Keep it simple, even a well-played GIF could hold the answer to this complex problem.