Trump would flunk 'extreme vetting': EJ Montini

It would be funny if it wasn’t scary.

Donald Trump is proposing a vague “extreme vetting” process for potential immigrants that includes a provision in which we would “only admit into this country people who share our values and respect our people,” a standard that would be impossible for him to meet.

Okay, maybe that IS funny.

It’s impossible to list all of the U.S. Constitution provisions Trump would toss out the window, or the many ways he expresses his lack of our shared values, but there are a few things we could mention.

First, there’s that pesky First Amendment protection for freedom of religion and of the press.

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This means, essentially, we don’t punish people for their religious beliefs, as Trump would. And a ban on those who practice a specific religion is not one of our shared values. Likewise, he couldn’t go around closing down houses of worship, as he’s suggested.

Also, because Trump does not like the media (or the way some of them insist on printing the facts) he wants to eliminate protections guaranteed in our Constitution’s freedom of the press.

He’d like to institute torture as a national policy, which is not exactly in keeping with the Eight Amendment’s protection against cruel and unusual punishment.

He’s a big fan of allowing the government to condemn property and hand it over to big-time developers, like him, which doesn’t quite conform to Fifth Amendment protections.

We could go on.

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Trump opposes marriage equality and he took on as a running mate a man who signed an ugly anti-LGBT law in Indiana.

Shared values? Respect?

Also, he has a tendency to repeat things that aren’t exactly true, like saying President Obama and then-Secretary of State Clinton are the co-founders of ISIS.

Come on. Really?

And saying, with emphasis, that he opposed the war in Iraq “from the beginning.”

Actually, on Sept. 11, 2002, a year before the invasion, radio host Howard Stern asked Trump if he supported a future invasion of Iraq.

“Yeah, I guess so,” he responded, “I wish the first time it was done correctly.”

And while Trump would never admit it the current vetting process for refugees already is pretty tough. First, there is screening by United Nations High Commissioner for Refuges, the U.N.’s refugee agency. That includes in-depth refugee interviews, home country reference checks and biological screening. Those who get referred to the U.S. (a very, very small percentage) then face U.S. screening.

This process involves nine different government agencies. Law enforcement, intelligence and security agencies. After that, a Department of Homeland Security officer conducts in-person interviews with every applicant. Biometric information are collected and matched against criminal databases. Biographical information is investigated. The process takes approximately two years.

Approval depends a lot on being factual and honest.

Imagine the difficulty Trump would have with that, let alone with his “extreme vetting.”

Whatever that is.

EJ Montini is a columnist for The Arizona Republic, where this piece first appeared. 

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