This is a post discussion the defenses for why the ban is warranted and subsequent debunkings of said defenses. If you can think of one that I missed, leave a comment.

The ban isn't Islamophobic

Yes, it is. That's simple. If you think it's not because the terrorist immigrants are mostly likely to be Muslim, then it's still Islamophobic. I understand that the majority of terror we see is performed by radical Islamists, however to go into the difference between Muslims/radicals would take too long.

Prioritizing Christian refugees isn't wrong because they're subjects of persecution.

This is unfortunately true. Christians are persecuted in Islamic countries to a degree, before and after the rise of ISIS.

But you know who aren't prioritized? The Yazidi. Ever heard of them? They're an ethnic group in the Middle East, they might number in as low as 200,000. They are the subject of an active genocide by ISIS. Not persecution. Actual. Genocide. Where's their prioritization, hm? The majority of them aren't Christian, they're adherents of their ethnic religion. But that one prospect denies them the amelioration that we are giving Christians. That's the problem, we aren't focusing on probability, we're focusing on religion. You know who else is persecuted by ISIS? Other Muslims, in fact their persecution totally outweighs the Yazidi's in terms of numbers. There are less than a million Yazidis in the war-torn and terrorist controlled territories. There are around 3/4 of a million Christians in these lands. How many Muslims are there? 81.05 million, and we're denying them all entry because of their religion.

But even then, the ban does a lot for national security

But it doesn't! Do you know how hard it is to emigrate to this country? Here's a run through:

COSTS

• $10,000+ in legal fees, $2,500 belonging to the main payment
• $1,500+ training fee
• $1,000+ “premium processing” fee
• a $500+ antifraud fee
• $190+ immigration service fee
• around $125 in additional incidental costs
• $100+ visa fee

In comparison, an illegal Latin American immigrant would normally need to pay $7,000 and $10,000 to be smuggled across the border.

VETTING PROCESS (NOTE THIS IS FAR HARSHER FOR SYRIAN REFUGEES)

• Sending a petition to the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, which handles oversees immigration to the United States and approves (or denies) immigrant petitions and much more.
• Wait for the petition to be approved, if its denied, you're screwed.
• After approval, you now move to the National Visa Center After petition approval, the National Visa Center handles processing for certain kinds of documents, sending them onward to U.S. Embassies & consulates.
• Find a time where it's best for the gov't to begin the visa process, begin the process where you can be terminated for no reason at any time, complete the visa application, find an agent to represent you, pay fees
• Submit the application, done right? Nope. Now, petitioners are required to submit an Affidavit of Support form and evidence of their income. Collect all the proof of income that you can, which most will probably not even have or will have no way to get, hire a translator, collect forms, photocopy all IDs, certificates, all relative documents under the sun, because if you miss even one thing, you're denied, and you have to start all over again. Once you have the photocopies, you must submit the originals and the photocopies of each of your required civil documents to the U.S. Embassy or Consulate at the time of your interview. That's in NYC, and it ain't cheap to ship.
• Have the U.S. Embassies and Consulates review visa applications and documents, conduct interviews to determine eligibility for visas, and complete processing. They issue U.S. visas to eligible applicants, and you have no control over how quickly its done. Many are actually killed waiting for this step to complete. You can also be denied at this step for no reason whatsoever, and you're screwed.
• Somehow set up an interview, complete a total medical exam, get vaccinated, register for courier services and many other pre-interview steps, gather documents relevant to interview, and read numerous pieces on necessary actions. For an interview.
• If you're approved, hooray. Still not close to done, you can still be denied a visa even if you were approved during the interview. Now, you need to wait for your visa, and it'll be a while. You will also receive a sealed packet containing documents that you must present to U.S. Customs and Border Protection at an entry point upon your arrival in the United States. You must not open the sealed packet. You must arrive and apply for admission in the United States no later than the visa expiration date printed on your visa. An immigrant visa is usually valid for up to six months from the date of issuance unless your medical examination expires sooner, which may make your visa valid for less than six months. Next, you need to pay the fees. If you can't pay your fee, you don't get a green card. Next, you need to provide evidence of vaccinations, and go through extensive medical probing, x-rays, retina scans, biometric scans, the whole nine yards, all the while being back-checked to international databases. Imagine how long that's gonna take! And if they find the teeniest thing on you, bye-bye citizenship!

If you're lucky, this'll take less than two years.

With Syrian refugees, THE PROCESS IS EVEN HARDER.

So yeah, no one is going to do this just to blow themselves up in a country an entire ocean away.

Didn't Jimmy Carter limit the number of Iranians entering the country? This isn't new.

Yes, Carter limited Iranian immigration and froze all Iranian assets in the country. Do you know why he did this? Because in 1979, Iranian radicalism held the US Embassy in Tehran and all inside it hostage for 444 days. The government of Iran did absolutely nothing, and in fact supported the terrorists.

Here, the governments of the countries aren't supporting the terrorists. They're fighting them alongside us. And guess what, Carter didn't ban just the Muslims while prioritizing another persecuted Iranian groups, he restricted them all equally.

And even then, what Carter did still isn't right! We denied people who had nothing to do with the government and in fact wanted to escape a regime we opposed, while simultaneously limiting the complete assets and freedoms of Iranians in this country! For no reason!

Internment camps worked for the Japanese, didn't it?

It didn't! At all!

The camps are a serious blemish on the reputation of this country! We went against our founding principles on nothing but suspicion.

But we don't know!

Of course we don't know. There's nothing wrong with being cautious, people. But there's definitely something wrong with being so paralyzed by contemplation that we begin to work against ourselves!

When we limited the Chinese immigrants with the Chinese Exclusion Act, it was a disaster, it was made permanent in 1902. It was done for no good reason and didn't actually help the US at all.

When we denied the Jews entry to the US in the 40s, it was under the assumption that some would be Nazi spies. The majority of them were sent back to Europe and were slaughtered. We had no reason to believe that Germany was attempting to infiltrate us, but we had every reason to believe that there were horrors that all peoples were trying to escape from.

Today, we are doing this exact same thing. Except now, we definitely know that there are horrors in the places these peoples are fleeing from! We know that there are terrorists, genocides, persecution, and war! And we're still limiting these people while admitting others from the same region, facing the same problems, with a higher priority? Why?

Because of religion.

There is no good reason why we should bring in Christians because they are being persecuted while denying entry to victims of genocide.

There is no good reason we should ban people from entering this country because of their religion.

There is no good reason to have a ban that doesn't do anything to combat a proclaimed terrorist threat that doesn't exist.