I want to take a very quick look at the practicality of Donald Trump’s plan to bar Muslims from entering the United States.

The idea behind the plan is simple enough. The vast majority of terrorists in the world are Muslims and therefore if we ban all of them from entering the United States we decrease the chances of a terrorist attack.

There are a lot of people out there decrying the plan for any number of reasons but I simply want to look at it from a practical perspective. Let’s imagine Trump is elected President of the United States and manages to get legislation passed barring all Muslims from entering the United States.

The law is passed. All travelers coming from outside the United States into the country must declare their religious affiliation before entering. How is it implemented?

At entry points everyone is asked their religion. What will happen?

1. Any person who plans on a terrorist act will lie about their religion.
2. Many people will refuse to answer the question.
3. Some people will give an accurate answer.

The result. No one is any safer.

It’s quite obvious that any terrorist is going to lie about their religion, in order to prevent that person from entering the country we will have to do a background check on them to ensure they are the religion they claim to be.

This means everyone entering the country will have to have a background check. This would be a huge inconvenience to all travelers, frankly, it would make travel into the country all but impossible. A literal army of agents would be required to do the check which would cost trillions of dollars. Trillions? You bet. Think about all the people who are entering the country every day and what it would take to investigate each one.

And, of course, any terrorist who plans on entering the country will take the time to fake a conversion to some other religion.

So, in a nutshell, the plan is useless in preventing terrorists from entering the country, will cost taxpayers trillions of dollars, will inconvenience every traveler harshly, and will invade the privacy of all our lives.

Welcome to ‘Merica.

I’ve got another plan for you. Vote Libertarian.

Tom Liberman
Sword and Sorcery fantasy with a Libertarian Ideology
Current Release: The Girl in Glass I: Apparition
Next Release: The Gray Horn