Thank God that at least part of the government is functioning as it ought to. On Thursday, a three-judge panel of the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals upheld a temporary freeze on the president’s misguided ban on travel from seven mostly Muslim countries and his suspension of refugee resettlements. Ostensibly, President Trump wants to suspend the refugee program and freeze immigration from the seven countries in order to give his administration time to review how the government vets visa and asylum requests. It would be foolish not to assess how such programs are working on a regular basis — that’s basic governmental accountability. Yet Trump has slashed the number of refugees the U.S. will accept this fiscal year from the Obama-approved 110,000 to 50,000.

Source: Los Angeles Times February 10, 2017 00:19 UTC