This post was originally written as a comment to Jake Fuentes’ widely shared Medium article “The Immigration Ban Was a Headfake And We’re Falling for It.” It was featured at #17 on Medium’s list of Most Popular on January 31, 2017. Jake’s piece came in at #1 on that list. Daniel Kahn also provides some excellent points on the original article.

I agree with much of what’s here but disagree on one CRITICAL point: Photos of protests seen around the world and in the States help Muslims here and overseas know that the American people are not monolithically interested in bombing and then banning them. They serve as a powerful tool against ISIS recruiting abroad and among those seeing family subjected to sudden, targeted, seemingly nonsensical airport detentions. Ultimately, that helps keep our troops safe overseas and serves our long-term interests as a nation. Please don’t ever underestimate that. Foreign relations normally fall under the job of the US Government and State Department in particular, but we have some voids in those places right now.