Trump says he would ban Gaza refugees from the US

By Thomas Beaumont and Jill Colvin | Related Press

CLIVE, Iowa — Doubling down on the hard-line immigration insurance policies which have lengthy animated his base, former President Donald Trump on Monday vowed to bar refugees from Gaza and instantly develop his first-term Muslim journey ban if he wins a second time period following the lethal assault on Israel final week.

Talking to supporters in Iowa, Trump mentioned that if he returns to the Oval Workplace, he’ll instantly start “ideological screening” for all immigrants and bar those that sympathize with Hamas and Muslim extremists. The conflict between Israel and Hamas has sparked what’s now the deadliest of 5 Gaza wars for each side, with greater than 4,000 useless.

His proposals would mark a dramatic growth of the controversial — and legally doubtful — insurance policies that drew alarm from immigrant rights and civil liberties activists, however helped him win the GOP main in 2016. Trump has lengthy railed in opposition to the U.S. taking immigrants from international locations he has dubbed inferior, notably in Africa and the Center East, and advised the group Monday that whereas he was president the U.S. stood up for Israel and “Judeo-Christian civilization and values.”

Trump additionally continued to color himself as a martyr for his loyal supporters, railing in opposition to the 4 indictments he’s going through together with a slim gag order that was imposed Monday by the federal decide overseeing the 2020 election interference case in opposition to him in Washington. The order, which has pledged to enchantment, bars him from making statements focusing on prosecutors, doable witnesses and courtroom employees.

“I’m keen to go to jail if that’s what it takes for our nation to turn into a democracy once more,” he mentioned in Clive.

Trump pledged to bar the entry of refugees from Gaza fleeing Israel’s retaliatory strikes after the shock Oct. 7 assault, simply as he tried to bar residents from seven Muslim-majority international locations throughout his first time period with an govt order. The chief order, nevertheless, was met with fierce opposition and was fought all the way in which to the Supreme Courtroom. The excessive courtroom finally upheld a 3rd model of the ban, which included vacationers from North Korea and a few from Venezuela.

Present and former members of communist and totalitarian events and their sympathizers are already banned from entry into the U.S. However Trump advised about 1,500 folks in suburban Des Moines that if he wins a second time period, the U.S. would now not permit what he known as “harmful lunatics, haters, bigots and maniacs to get residency in our nation.”

“In case you empathize with radical Islamic terrorists and extremists, you’re disqualified,” he mentioned. “If you wish to abolish the state of Israel, you’re disqualified. In case you help Hamas or any ideology that’s having to do with that or any of the opposite actually sick ideas that undergo folks’s minds — very harmful ideas — you’re disqualified.”

The previous president and GOP front-runner additionally mentioned he would aggressively deport resident aliens with “jihadist sympathies” and ship immigration brokers to “pro-jihadist demonstrations” to determine violators.

“Within the wake of the assaults on Israel, People have been disgusted to see the open help for terrorists among the many legions of overseas nationals on school campuses. They’re educating your kids hate,” he mentioned. “Beneath the Trump administration, we are going to revoke the scholar visas of radical anti-American and anti-Semitic foreigners at our faculties and universities and we are going to ship them straight again residence.”

Although Trump’s viewers within the Horizon Occasions Heart in Clive cheered his proposals, 31-year-old info know-how specialist Ritu Bansal mentioned she supported Trump however hoped he would additionally present compassion for the folks of Gaza.

“In my view the U.S. authorities ought to take care of the victims of the Hamas assault on Israel and the civilian victims in Gaza,” Bansal mentioned. “The U.S. can take care of each.”

Trump has stepped up his caucus campaigning this fall as his crew tries to lock in help to not solely keep away from a repeat of his 2016 second-place end however to win an awesome victory that will deny momentum to whoever finishes in second place.

Earlier, Trump rallied caucusgoers in Iowa’s rural Dallas County, the place he acquired the endorsement of the state’s legal professional normal and predicted a landslide victory three months earlier than voting begins within the GOP contest’s kickoff state.

Brenna Chicken, Iowa’s Republican legal professional normal, served beforehand as former Iowa Rep. Steve King’s chief of employees in addition to an aide to former Gov. Terry Branstad and Gov. Kim Reynolds. Final yr, Chicken beat longtime Democratic Legal professional Common Tom Miller.

By late Monday afternoon, Trump had campaigned earlier than roughly 13,000 folks in lower than a month. In contrast to his seat-of-the-pants marketing campaign in 2016, Trump’s crew is utilizing the candidate’s celeb to attract Republicans and observe curiosity in supporting him within the leadoff caucuses set for Jan. 15.