The Manchester Bomber and Refugee Restrictions

The Manchester Bomber (MB) turned out to be the son of Libyan refugees, born in the UK.  Some media personalities, politicians, and talking heads have taken advantage of this to point out, often gleefully, that Trump’s desired restrictions on refugees would not have prevented the MB from doing his dirty work because the MB is not a refugee.  This logic is appalling – so appalling and faulty that, once again it is clear that their anti-Trump political agenda trumps (pardon the pun) what may be good for the country.

The MB’s parents are refugees, hence if Trump’s restrictions had been in place when the parents immigrated to the UK, they may not have been admitted and the bombing might not have occurred.  Moreover, refugees that are admitted to a new country often tend to live among other refugees and maintain their own culture, in some cases complete with the same adversarial relationship with their new country’s culture and people that is responsible for the violence perpetrated by their home countries on their new countries.  This has turned out to be the case with the MB’s parents.

Contrary to what the gleeful anti-Trump crowd claims, the fact that the MB was born in the UK is actually a reason for, not against, refugee restrictions.