The U.S. Was Hardly Wide Open to Muslims Before Trump

President Donald Trump's immigration order was so boorish, purposely hostile and ill-conceived that it has obscured an inconvenient truth for many of those who oppose it: The U.S. was refusing entry to many Muslims long before he took office.

In a statement Sunday night, Trump said his choice of seven countries -- Iran, Iraq, Syria, Libya, Somalia, Sudan and Yemen -- matched those singled out by the Visa Waiver Program Improvement and Terrorist Travel Prevention Act, which was passed under President Barack Obama. Far short of a ban -- and far from stranding green card holders and dual citizens at the border -- that legislation required dual citizens of those countries and anyone who traveled there to apply for a visa to enter the U.S. But the fact remains that these countries were first formally singled out as potential threats under Obama, not Trump.