John Limbert criticizes the travel ban and notes the impact that the ban on Iranian nationals will have:

Donald Trump’s misguided executive order officially applies to citizens of seven countries. Iranians are most affected, however, because of their large population, the size of their community in the United States and because of that community’s frequent international travel. It also sends a message that contradicts what Obama and his predecessors were saying. Now the message is: “We don’t care about your appalling government. Instead we will now punish you for being Iranian.”

In this strange world of alternative facts, keeping out the Iranian scientist, the business­person, the professor, the Oscar-winning film director, the grandparent, and the child now somehow becomes a means to keep Americans safe.

There are many things wrong with the travel ban, but barring Iranian nationals from entry may be the most absurd part of it. Iranians are one of the most pro-American nations in the world, but the ban casts suspicion on them and treats all of them as a potential threat. Iran isn’t in the throes of civil war, and it is ludicrous to think that jihadists are going to travel here by way of Iran. Iran isn’t responsible for promoting the ideology of the jihadists that seek to do us harm, nor does it sponsor armed groups that collaborate with jihadists; those dubious distinctions belong to the Saudis and the other Gulf states. Iranians aren’t responsible for terrorist attacks in the West, and more than almost any other nation in the region the people there immediately and publicly sympathized with America after the 9/11 attacks. Despite the harm that U.S. policies have done to their country over the years, most Iranians distinguish between the acts of our government and the people. Now they are being collectively blamed for the actions of their government over which they have little or no influence.

There are many things wrong with barring Iranians from being able to come here, but what makes it particularly dangerous is that it strikes at the most regular contacts between our two peoples. Our governments don’t have normal relations, sanctions prevent much of the trade that we might have with them, and now one of the few remaining reliable connections between our countries is being cut out of excessive and misplaced fear. That not only burdens countless Iranians and Iranian-Americans, but it also creates another barrier between our countries that makes it even easier for hard-liners on either side to vilify the other country and stoke tensions that could lead to war.