Writing in Lawfare on Feb. 4, Stewart Baker argued that President Biden’s repeal of the Muslim ban would compromise national security. He contends that an “unpopular and racist order” became a “calibrated security tool that depended not at all on the majority religion of the countries it affected” and that its revocation is essentially a political stunt that will damage U.S. national security. We disagree. The prospect of being placed on the banned list may well have incentivized a few countries to provide additional information to the U.S., but the program was still wrong and ending it won’t make Americans less safe.
The evolution of the ban cannot be divorced from its origin. Throughout his presidential campaign, Donald Trump vowed to keep Muslims out of the country. His attempts to follow through destroyed the United States’s reputation as a welcoming place for…
