PropertyValue
?:author
?:datePublished
  • 2015-12-09 (xsd:date)
?:headline
  • Jimmy Carter Banned Iranian Immigrants (en)
?:inLanguage
?:itemReviewed
?:mentions
?:reviewBody
  • Following the 2 December 2015 mass shooting in San Bernardino, California, Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump controversially suggested (temporarily) barring all Muslims from entering the United States. During the ensuing debate over Trump's pronouncement, several web sites said that Trump's suggestion followed a precedent set by President Jimmy Carter barring Iranian nationals from entering the U.S. during the Iran Hostage Crisis of 1980. One such comparison was made in an 8 December 2015 Frontpage Mag article titled Carter Banned Iranians from Coming to US During Hostage Crisis: Trump is Just Like Hitler. Or Jimmy Carter, which held that: The claim quickly spread online, primarily among people who favored Trump's proposed restrictions on Muslim immigration. Web sites spreading the claim referenced a 7 April 1980 announcement by Carter titled Sanctions Against Iran Remarks Announcing U.S. Actions and highlighted a portion of those remarks: President Carter had opted to impose sanctions on Iran, which included a cessation of diplomatic relations, a prohibition on trade, assessment of previously-frozen Iranian Government assets, the cancellation of Iranian-U.S. visas, and a moratorium on new visas (with exceptions for humanitarian and otherwise compelling situations) in response to Iranian terrorists' having invaded the U.S. Embassy in Tehran five months earlier and taken 50 American citizens hostage: Stripped of context (and if readers squinted very hard), President Carter's remarks bore a passing resemblance to Donald Trump's proposal. However, while Carter's action involved a well-defined class of persons (Iranian citizens) being denied entry to the U.S. until a well-defined goal was achieved (the hostages were released), Trump's suggestion was ill-defined in scope and purpose: the latter advocated a total and complete shutdown of Muslims entering the United States (which could apply to persons from any country in the world and would require making subjective estimations about their religious beliefs) until our country's representatives can figure out what is going on (a vague and unintelligible goal). Carter explicitly outlined the reasons behind the issuance of sanctions (including visa cancellation for Iranian nationals) and underscored his intent to apply pressure to Iran's government release American hostages. By contrast, Trump's proposal was markedly different: not a sanction, but a security measure framed as a counterterrorism strategy, and one directed at all adherents of a particular religion (regardless of their nationalities) rather than citizens of a particular country. Moreover, Carter's sanctions occurred during a lengthy period of escalating conflict between Iran and the United States (during which U.S. hostages remained in foreign captivity), but Trump's proposal was issued in response to a mass shooting perpetrated by an American citizen and his immigrant wife. Carter's sanctions were applied to Iranian nationals as part of a clear objective to secure the release of the U.S. hostages without military intervention, whereas Trump's suggestion applied to a far broader cross-section of visa applicants, which he described as a measure to prevent terrorist attacks. Historically, Carter's sanctions bore closer resemblance to Kennedy administration-era sanctions on Cuba [PDF, PDF] than Trump's anti-immigration plan. (en)
?:reviewRating
rdf:type
?:url