I’m sad. A lot of good, brilliant, kind people who believed in what the United States stood for, and wanted to work and study and build lives here, are instead stranded in countries where they are in a ton of danger. People who helped Americans in Iraq and Afghanistan, and risked retaliation for it, have been betrayed; we promised them they’d have the chance to come build lives here. We broke that promise. Hopefully no one in occupied countries will ever trust us or cooperate with us again.

I’ve been refraining from saying anything because I can’t think of anything charitable and balanced and open-minded that will resonate with people who think turning away Iranian PhD students is some sort of courageous strike for justice. I have nothing to say to those people right now. I value non-Americans and I want them to be safe and happy and I think we and they are strengthened when they have the chance to live and work here; if you don’t care about people who birth placed outside our borders, then for the moment I can’t think of anything to say to you. 

But I’m not going to stay quiet until I come up with something.

This is wrong. This is cruel. This should be fought in the courts and fought by any other achievable means. This is not defensible as a means of reducing violence; this is not defensible as a means of preserving our values; this is only defensible if you think people born in other countries don’t matter, and promises don’t matter, and integrity doesn’t matter, and symbolic expressions of loathing for Muslims matter a great deal. 

That’s not charitable at all. I don’t think I really care.