Preventing terrorism necessitates the banning of people who may be a likely threat, but President Trump is targeting the wrong group. There have not been any attacks by refugees or immigrants from the countries banned.

There are two groups of people who do have a history of having engaged in terrorism.

The most important group to target is men. With one exception, men have perpetrated all terrorist attacks in America.

Another significant group of terrorists are children of immigrants. This has been especially true in Europe, but President Trump has stated that he wants to keep America safe, so banning children of immigrants would be a good precaution here. This would mean most of his children would have to be banned, a necessary measure while the administration rethinks the immigration policy

These groups represent a direct threat, whereas none of the countries on the banned list have been places of origin of perpetrators of fatal terrorist attacks.

Men and the children of refugees have been the two groups that have spawned terrorism. If these measure were put in place, the threat of terrorist attacks in the United States would be drastically reduced, if not completely eliminated.

Alicia Harding

Portland

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