Trump’s Claim That ‘More Than 300’ Refugees Are Subjects Of Counterterrorism Investigations

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Publish Date:
March 6, 2017
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The Washington Post
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Summary

Clearly, the administration decided this was a key talking point for the rollout of its new immigration executive order: that more than 300 refugees are subjects of counterterrorism investigations.

On March 6, President Trump issued an executive order temporarily banning travelers from six Muslim-majority countries, revising the version that led to massive confusion around the world and a federal court decision that halted enforcement of the order.

While the Justice Department did not provide data to support its assertion, it may be deriving data from the Justice Department National Security Division’s list of terrorism and terrorism-related convictions, wrote Shirin Sinnar, an associate law professor at Stanford Law School. Previously, Sessions used this data to claim that hundreds of people convicted of terrorism or terrorism-related activities were foreign-born. Sinnar obtained the division’s list of public or unsealed international terrorism and related convictions from Sept. 11, 2001, to Dec. 31, 2015, through a Freedom of Information Act request.

Sinnar found this list to be a misleading source to support the administration’s claims about its travel ban. (For more, read the full, detailed report.)

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