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SUMMARY: President Donald Trump's executive order concerning refugees and visa-holders has sparked protests and backlash across the nation and overseas. Former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright joins Judy Woodruff to share her rebuke of the White House ban, as well as controversial changes adding Stephen Bannon to the National Security Council.
JUDY WOODRUFF (NewsHour): Now, for more on the executive order on refugees and visa holders and changes the President to the makeup of the National Security Council, we turn first to former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright. She served as the United States' top diplomat during the Clinton administration.
When we spoke a short time ago, I began by asking her reaction to the Trump White House ban on immigrants from seven countries.
MADELEINE ALBRIGHT, Former U.S. Secretary of State: Judy, I'm appalled, because it's done everything except keep America safer.
And let me just say, I kind of have looked at things thinking that they made this executive action without really understanding what it's all about. So, it was unprepared, I would say, because they didn't really see how the government works. They didn't really contact the various departments that are part of this homeland security, trying to figure out what would happen once you do something like this from the Oval Office.
So, unprepared. And then I think, also, part of the problem was, they didn't understand what I say the unintended consequences of this, because the truth is that the countries that have been designated are now reacting, creating more problems for us, and then banning people — our people from going there.
For instance, in Iraq, how do we protect our troops? What about the people that are interpreting? And then I think all of it is based on untrue facts. And so I think it is a very serious problem in terms of how the whole system works.
JUDY WOODRUFF: Well, let me take a couple of those, one at a time.
What they're saying is if — they're saying, if they had let the rest of the government know what they were doing, that it would have leaked, and they said there would have been a flood of people trying to get in. And they also say that they're basically only following what the Obama administration had done a few years ago in listing countries that were the most for the United States to fear in terms of terrorism.
MADELEINE ALBRIGHT: Well, the latter is true.
What was happened was, there was an incident where something was coming out of Iraq. They were concerned about what the facts really were. They wanted to re-vet some people. They didn't have enough manpower to do that, so things slowed down.
So there is nothing like that happened in the Obama administration. I think the excuse about not letting others know, first of all, they need to understand that the government, in fact, when people trust each other, doesn't leak out when it's an important issue.
But how can you not let the departments that have something to do with executing the order not know? Because I think that they were genuinely surprised by, you know how slow it was, what happened when they detained people, what happened then when there were demonstrations against it.
So I'm willing to say they were surprised at the reaction to it, but that's a sign of the fact they didn't understand what they were doing.
"Will the refugee ban reinforce political division?" PBS NewsHour 1/30/2017
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SUMMARY: President Donald Trump had promised a crackdown on immigration on the campaign trail. Now he's done it, following through with a ban on refugees that was popular with his supporters. Amy Walter of The Cook Political Report and Tamara Keith of NPR, join Judy Woodruff to discuss the political effects of the President's executive order restricting immigration and more.
"How Trump's immigration ban is jeopardizing one Iraqi translator's future in America" PBS NewsHour 1/30/2017
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SUMMARY: After seven years of working alongside the U.S. military, Abdul Hamid Abdul Ghani was set to move to live in the United States with his family next week. Now President Donald Trump's executive order has left their future uncertain. Special correspondent Jane Ferguson reports from Northern Iraq.
"The legal arguments for and against Trump's immigration ban" PBS NewsHour 1/31/2017
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SUMMARY: Lawsuits have challenged President Donald Trump's executive order that temporarily prohibits immigrants and visitors from seven countries. Jonathan Turley a law professor at George Washington University, and Neal Katyal former Acting Solicitor General under President Obama, join Miles O'Brien to discuss whether Trump's policy violates the law or [U.S.] Constitution.
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