Ian Samuel

On Friday, President Donald Trump signed an executive order restricting immigration from seven Muslim-majority countries, suspending the US refugee programme for 120 days, and banning Syrian refugees from entering the country until further notice. Ian Samuel, a lecturer at Harvard Law School, explained the executive order - and just what is wrong with it - to Al Jazeera. Al Jazeera: What is the problem with the executive order? Ian Samuel: The United States immigration statute had, for 50 years, prohibited the kind of discrimination that this travel ban engages in, and moreover, the US Constitution prohibits targeting people because of their religion, which this travel ban is a very lightly disguised attempt to do. No civil servant who is covered by ordinary protections of the meritorious protection board is obligated to do illegal things in the course of their duties, and that's exactly what this travel ban asks them to do, it asks them to do something illegal.