Sal Oliva, a hotel worker and Uber courier from Staten Island, is ecstatic about President Donald Trump's executive order. So are Michael Bower, an owner of a home alarm company in Seattle, and Lynn and Don Broesch, retirees from suburban Milwaukee.
Trump's immigration policy may be setting off protests around the country and raising eyebrows and objections among allies abroad. But at home, a large portion of the electorate is behind the president. Trump's supporters say that the promise of tougher immigration policies is one of the main reasons they voted for him. Friday's order, along with an earlier one for building a wall, shows that he is serious, they say.
More World News Videos
Democratic leader calls immigration order 'un-American'
New York Senator Chuck Schumer was brought to tears as he demanded that President Trump reverse his immigration order, calling the ban 'mean-spirited'.
"I was like, 'Oh, my God.' I was so happy," said Oliva, 32. He is gay and said he was deeply affected by the shooting at the Pulse nightclub in Orlando, Florida, by an American of Afghan descent. "That one really got to me. That could have been me."
Trump has tapped into a deep anxiety that is a relatively recent feature of modern US politics: terrorism from abroad.
His detractors argue that his actions are not borne out by facts. Since September 11, 2001, no one has been killed in the United States by an immigrant - or the son or daughter of an immigrant - from any of the seven countries in the 90-day visa ban. A vast majority of killings overall happen at the hands of native-born Americans. Some recent attacks in which the Islamic State was invoked were carried out by Muslims born in the United States.
But emotions are powerful forces, and much of what people know comes from smartphone and tablet screens showing an endless stream of news of terrorist attacks that feel immediate and threatening even if they are far away.
"I don't begrudge my grandma who never met a Muslim in her life, but all she sees on TV are Muslims blowing things up," said Bower, 35, who grew up in rural Idaho. "It is not irrational that people are worried."
He emphasised that Trump's order was "only temporary."
![Sal Oliva said, “I was so happy” upon hearing of the tough new Trump immigration policy.](/web/20170201005502im_/http://www.canberratimes.com.au/content/dam/images/g/u/2/q/e/i/image.related.articleLeadwide.620x349.gu2oyi.png/1485904161079.jpg)
"Let's just take a breather," Bower said. "Take a little time out. Let's get the smart people in here and formulate a plan."
Each person sees the policy through the lens of personal experience. For Bower, it evokes his stepsister, whose husband works in lower Manhattan and was there on September 11. He was on one of the last trains out of the city that morning and, even now, Bower said, she is scared every day her husband goes to work.
![People chant slogans at the Indianapolis International Airport during a protest against President Donald Trump's ...](/web/20170201005502im_/http://www.canberratimes.com.au/content/dam/images/g/u/1/o/c/c/image.related.articleLeadwide.620x349.gu2oyi.png/1485904161079.jpg)
"I guess I would probably say I adopted my sister's view," he said. "I see how it affects her. I don't think it's bad to re-examine what we are doing."
Bower, a college-educated Republican, said he voted for Trump largely to avoid voting for Hillary Clinton. He said he is watching what the president does and would not support him unconditionally. He said he was politically lonely in blue Seattle, but wanted to give Trump the benefit of the doubt. The immigration order did nothing to dampen his enthusiasm.
![US President Donald Trump's executive order has been widely condemned.](/web/20170201005502im_/http://www.canberratimes.com.au/content/dam/images/g/u/2/n/n/9/image.related.articleLeadwide.620x349.gu2oyi.png/1485907932841.jpg)
Divided by protests
The protests in recent days were viewed with irritation by some, including conservatives who were otherwise critical of Trump's order. "People at airports are on tight schedules and are henpecked enough as it is," Jay Cost, a senior writer for the Weekly Standard, said on Twitter. "It is uncivil and rude."
![Michael Bower, an owner of a home alarm company in Seattle and supporter of President Donald Trump.](/web/20170201005502im_/http://www.canberratimes.com.au/content/dam/images/g/u/2/r/v/y/image.related.articleLeadwide.620x349.gu2oyi.png/1485904161079.jpg)
Dan McLaughlin, a securities lawyer in New York, in an article for National Review, wrote that the anger over the new policy was "seriously misplaced," and he argued that the policy was far less radical than critics had made it seem.
"His policy may be terrible public relations for the United States," McLaughlin wrote. "But it is fairly narrow and well within the recent tradition of immigration actions taken by the Obama administration."
![A man holds a placard during a gathering to protest US President Donald Trump's recent travel ban.](/web/20170201005502im_/http://www.canberratimes.com.au/content/dam/images/g/u/2/p/5/k/image.related.articleLeadwide.620x349.gu2oyi.png/1485904161079.jpg)
Others said that the policy, which went into effect Friday night, had been effective. Mark Kern, a video game designer turned conservative political pundit who has supported video surveillance of mosques, voiced his approval. He said that Trump's decisive action was a welcome change.
"If we sit and debate and prevaricate, remember Europe did this too, and now wishes it hadn't," he wrote in one tweet. He added later, "Luckily we now have a POTUS who does not waver or hesitate to do what is needed. And despite hysteria to the contrary, lawfully."
![Demonstrators gather outside JFK airport to protest Trump's executive order.](/web/20170201005502im_/http://www.canberratimes.com.au/content/dam/images/g/u/0/r/c/5/image.related.articleLeadwide.620x349.gu2oyi.png/1485904161079.jpg)
If we sit and debate and prevaricate, remember Europe did this too, and now wishes it hadn't. They tried accepting millions and failed.
— Mark Kern (@Grummz) January 30, 2017
Conservative pundit Tomi Lahren, who supports Trump, wrote in an email that, "It's not intolerant or unloving to put Americans and American safety first. Every nation has the right to protect its people first."
"Somehow the left doesn't seem to understand or agree with that right," she said.
Those in 'Trump Country' - the places that propelled him to the White House - said the Democrats and liberal 'snowflakes' just needed to calm down.
"He's going to do what he says and says what he does," said Barbara Van Syckel, 66, of Sterling Heights, Michigan. "That's a little frightening for some people."
Retired social service worker Judith Wilkenloh says the order shows Trump "means what he says."
"He's just unafraid. He's just going ahead like a locomotive, and I like him more and more every time he does something," said Wilkenloh, 72, of Fredrick, Maryland.
The response on the right was far from monolithic. The Koch brothers condemned the order as the "wrong approach", and so did writers at their libertarian think-tank, the Cato Institute. John Podhoretz, the conservative commentator, reaffirmed that he thought Islamic terrorism posed a threat, but he wrote that the policy was not "based in fact."
![David Koch, along with brother Charles, condemned the order as the wrong approach.](http://web.archive.org./web/20170201005502im_/http://www.smh.com.au/content/dam/images/g/s/4/g/w/r/image.imgtype.articleLeadwide.620x349.png/1485901619933.png)
David Koch, along with brother Charles, condemned the order as the wrong approach. Photo: AP
In fact, Podhoretz wrote, the order resembled what he characterised as a liberal solution to major problems - a grand, gesture that the president was using to rally his base.
"They are making horrible policy for naked political advantage based in disingenuousness," he concluded. "And that's no way to run a country."
Polls show support for immigration order
A Quinnipiac poll taken in mid-January, before Trump issued the order, found that 48 per cent of Americans were in favour of "suspending immigration from terror prone regions, even if it means turning away refugees." Trump's order immediately closed the nation to refugees and to people from some predominantly Muslim countries, including Iraq, Syria and Iran.
In the same poll, 53 per cent or respondents were in favour of requiring Muslim immigrants to register with the federal government.
A December Politico/Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health poll found that 50 per cent of Americans favoured "banning future immigration from regions where there are active terrorist groups."
Opinion on the subject breaks sharply along partisan lines. A New York Times/CBS poll in July found that two in three Trump supporters favoured a temporary ban on allowing Muslims to enter the country, while 87 per cent of Clinton voters opposed it.
A member of Trump's transition team, Kris Kobach, had suggested before the new president took office that a national registry for immigrants from countries plagued by terrorism might be reinstated. A spokesman for Trump at the time, Jason Miller, later clarified that the registry would not track individuals based on their religion.
Trump's chief strategist, Stephen Bannon, has been sharply critical of the news media as elitist and out of touch and has stirred the pot of class divide. It is hard to say what part of the resentment his supporters feel has arisen from their own direct experience and what part has seeped in from the political air. Often it seems to come from both.
Oliva contended that the media portrays Muslim immigrants only positively.
"Every story about a Muslim immigrant is that they are as American as apple pie," he said. "But I'm sorry, Islam is no friend of LGBT people. When Islam meets gay people in Somalia or wherever, they get thrown off the roof. And you expect them to be different when they move here? You can't expect people to absorb our values."
Oliva, who also works on the upper East Side of Manhattan - and recently had a picture of Trump's face tattooed on his arm - said people in Manhattan did not understand his love for Trump because their problems were different from his.
Last month, he said, he was waiting for the M101 bus with an Uber package when he struck up a conversation with a well-dressed woman. Watching a snarl of traffic, she blamed Trump for it. Oliva told her he loved Trump and could not wait for him to take action against immigrants in the country illegally, who he said had hurt his weekend income as a house painter.
"These people in Manhattan, they don't know what's going on in the outer boroughs," he said. "These immigrants, they don't come to 86th Street; they come to Port Richmond Avenue on Staten Island." He added that Manhattanites are "not going to be affected. We are the ones that feel it."
On Trump's official Facebook page, his supporters thanked him for the action. One user, Jason Juno Lee, who identifies himself as a Marine, posted a comment comparing the United States after the order to a safely locked house.
"I lock my doors every night," he wrote. "I don't lock them because I 'hate' the people outside. I lock them because I love the people inside!"
Another user named Wes Schmaltz was more concise: "Thank you President Trump for doing exactly what you were elected to do."
The New York Times