MYTH: Trump is permanently banning people in seven countries from entering the United States.
FACT: The first draft of the executive order was a 90-day freeze on travel to the United States from the countries and a 120 day ban for refugees from Iran, Iraq, Syria, Somalia, Sudan, Yemen and Libya. The most recent order does not restrict those already holding visas from entering the US and drops Iraq from the list, but the time frame of the travel ban is not changed.
MYTH: The ban will keep all Muslims out of the United States.
FACT: The first draft of the travel ban offered preference to “persecuted religious minorities,” but the ban’s current iteration has no such preference–it prevents all residents in the six countries from getting US visas, and does not affect Muslims from any other nations.
Myth: The ban will lower the amount of violent acts in the U.S.
FACT: Since 2001, immigrants or those with immigrant parents from the banned countries have not committed any terrorist attacks in the U.S., according to the University of North Carolina. “Only 23 percent [of Muslim Americans] had family backgrounds in those countries,” according to Charles Kurzman, a sociology professor at UNC.