Trump Supporters Sound Off on Controversial Immigration Order
Mirroring the GOP response on Capitol Hill, Trump voters reactions were mixed.
— -- Days after announcing an executive order that would temporarily restrict immigration from seven Muslim-majority countries, as well as halt refugee settlement from Syria and elsewhere, President Trump found himself beset by a firestorm of legal challenges, protests and controversy at home and abroad.
For a number of a people who supported Trump’s presidency who spoke with ABC News, the reaction to the divisive order -- and its highly contested rollout -- has been a study in contrasts, mirroring the mixed reception that the memorandum has engendered among Republicans on Capitol Hill.
Rejecting calls that the ban was anti-immigrant or discriminatory against Muslims, some Trump supporters said the new policy was merely a way to take a needed hard look at existing national security processes.
“I think it’s a very good thing,” said Cynthia Kline, 48, a mental health professional from Rusk, Texas, who enthusiastically backed Trump and was an alternative delegate at last year’s Republican National Convention. “Hopefully this will give us an opportunity to develop a better vetting process.”
When asked about whether she thought the executive order was fraught, she said she did not see what the big fuss was all about. “There’s a significant overreaction,” she said.
On the campaign trail, and now while in office, Trump has described the policy of restricting immigration and refugees from Muslim-majority countries as an effort to find out “what the hell is going on” with regard to terrorism in the United States and abroad.
The view of the new order as a pause to assess current policy and better figure out the national security threat environment was echoed by David Barker, a 58-year old owner of multiple businesses from Bettendorf, Iowa.
“If they feel it necessary to stop the inflow to ensure the correct procedures are in place to get accurate information on who is into our country, so be it,” he said. “It is for everyone’s safety.”
“This is a terrorist issue,” he added. “Again, this is a temporary situation so they can evaluate the process to ensure it works.”
But the rollout of the order itself -- which has been met by massive popular protests, a flurry of lawsuits, confusion among border control agents at airports and conflicting statements from the administration -- has bothered others.
Lisa Hawkinson, a 57-year old grandmother from Pleasant Valley, Iowa, who supported Trump in the election but only after her preferred candidate wasn’t nominated, said the ban was likely to prove counterproductive.
“A flat ban will lead to hostilities, here and abroad,” she said, adding that she was disappointed thus far with some of Trump’s policies.
She said that the nationwide confusion and struggles at the airports in the aftermath of the order was a reason why the new administration had erred in bringing some policies on too fast.
But any perceived problems with how ban came into effect was small peanuts to the others who said it was a price worth paying.
“As usual for the good of the many, a few may be inconvenienced,” Barker said.