①Summarize what we learned in the week 8 recording, don’t reference, paraphrase any outside and lecture article！②Should also show how you are processing the material and that you understand the readings as well.

Answer

Summary

The lecturer began by giving us tips on how to make an excellent presentation. She likened a
presentation to a TED Talk, a comprehensive, short talk about a topic of particular interest and
importance. Therefore, just like the TED Talk, a research presentation should entail all the vital
details. Additionally, the lecturer told us that a research presentation aims to share and learn
about everyone's research and interest. Also, the presentation helps one to cultivate oral
presentation skills. The research presentation allows for a final opportunity for peer review
feedback before turning in the paper. Lastly, the research paper advances our collective
understanding of how the various issues we have studied interplay. Therefore, to accomplish all
the goals of a presentation, firstly, one must have a catchy introduction that explains the
importance of the work. The introduction should serve to give an understanding of the
fundamental research. Secondly, the research should have a thesis statement that supports the
content. Further, the lecturer emphasized the importance of maintaining eye contact during a
presentation. And lastly, while delivering a presentation, one must show passion and interest in
the study topic.
We then entered into the lesson of the day, which was "an in-depth examination of refugee issues
under the Trump administration." The class's starting point was how Trump has made it
impossible for people fleeing persecution to gain humanitarian protection in the United States.
Some of the policies that drew outrage include; separating children from their families, putting
children in cages, and imposing a Muslim ban on specific countries regardless of their needs for
protection. Notably, Trump's administration had enacted four hundred policy changes in the
immigration context that have significantly impacted refugee and asylum policies. The lecturer

informed us that some of Trump's immigration policies could get overturned by the incoming
government. Still, some policies are irreversible or may take a very long time to reverse.
Further, we took a recap of the refugee protection process in the U.S. We understood that the
refugee who come under this program meet the legal definition of a refugee. The refugees are
most at risk of harm in their mother countries. They have to get vetted before getting resettled in
the U.S. Unfortunately; the Trump administration had instated great changes in how refugee
asylum works, making it hard for refugees to get admission. Firstly, he instituted travel ban EO
13769, which aims at protecting the nation from foreign terrorist entry into the U.S. Notably, the
ban stopped Muslims from certain countries from the Middle East and Africa from entering the
U.S for ninety days. Also, the ban suspended refugees' admission from whichever country to the
refugee resettlement program for a period of one hundred and twenty days. Initially, Trump had
completely banned refugees' entry from Syria only to change his mind, later stating that
admission of Syrian refugees was in the public interest.
Additionally, the Trump administration's argument that America would only admit refugees from
countries with proper security features was faulted for being anti-asylum. The underlying
argument is that refugees flee insecure countries where they face persecution; thus, the
requirement that the countries be secure was absurd. Consequently, the lecturer played an
episode of the "Daily Show" by Trevor Noah, showing the absurdity of imposing a Muslim ban
since it affected the asylum seekers and other people with Green Cards. Fortunately, the travel
got blocked by the Ninth Circuit Court. The Trump administration could have appealed to the
Supreme Court, but instead, it created a new version of the ban known as Travel Ban 2.0.
However, under this new ban, the Trump administration officially lifted the ban on Syrian
refugees.

Nevertheless, Trump went ahead to issue Travel Ban 3.0, which removed Iraq from the list of
prohibited countries following an outcry that the ban had locked out the friendly person who had
helped U.S troops with translation during the Iraq war. However, Travel Ban 3.0, in a bid to
avoid looking Muslim targeted, added Venezuela and North Korea into the listed prohibited
countries. If the Muslim ban was to protect the U.S from terrorist attacks, it seemed to have
missed the point. Notably, from 1975-2017 only one hundred and ninety terrorism acts had
gotten carried by foreign-born terrorists, while native-born terrorists committed seven hundred
and eighty-eight acts of terrorism. Around 98.1% of all U.S citizens killed by terrorists died
through September 11, 2001 bombing. However, all these deaths were caused by foreign-born
terrorists; no native-born terrorist was involved. Consequently. Cato, a non-governmental
organization that deals with refugee issues, calculated that the chances of being killed by an
American refugee were one in 3.86 billion per year.
The Trump administration also created several barriers to asylum. Firstly, there was the
implementation of turn-backs and monitoring, limiting the number of asylum seekers who claim
asylum at the port of entry. Notably, the Trump administration ordered Customs and Border
Protection (CBP) to say that they can't process more asylum seekers while they had the capacity.
The lecturer likened the denial of entry for asylum seekers to the period during the Holocaust
when the U.S at St. Louis turned away refugees of Jewish origin escaping persecution in
Germany. The lecturer also reminded us that although the U.S has taken in a significant number
of refugees, the number is still small given our wealth and diversity. After all, millions of
refugees are hosted by developing countries that don't have resources like the U.S.
The lecturer also showed us a video of a policy f zero tolerance to asylum seekers where Texas
had held mass trials for children who had come to seek asylum in America. Regrettably, most of

these children had no prior criminal records, yet they were treated like criminals and separated
from their parents. For instance, a woman who had passed the credible fear interview had her son
taken away for two and a half months. Existing data show that the Trump administration's
asylum standards were so high that even when people expressed credible fear, they were still sent
back to their countries. There were a mother and her daughter who were kidnapped shortly after
being returned to Mexico. Unfortunately, even after hearing their case, they were still taken back
to Mexico despite expressing credible fear. Lastly, the lecturer played a recording from John
Oliver's show "Last Week Tonight," where the host questions the logic behind asylum seekers'
return in the countries where they are seeking persecution. It is like watching someone about to
drown asking for help, but instead of helping them, you leave them to drown.