The story of North Korean defector Ji Seong-ho, who received a standing ovation at the State of the Union, is truly incredible. Ji’s left arm and left leg were amputated when he was hit by a train as a teen—due to a devastating famine, Ji had passed out from hunger. But by “a decade later,” reported the Washington Post, “he managed to escape, making the journey across the Tumen River into China and eventually all the way down to the south of the country and across into Laos and then Thailand. From there, he was sent to South Korea.” Regardless of political party, Ji’s story is herculean, and at Tuesday’s address, he triumphantly lifted his crutches in the air. “But there’s one hitch,” reports Think Progress. “Under a presidential proclamation issued in September 2017, the Trump administration would have restricted travel by people like Ji from North Korea among six other countries”:
According to that presidential proclamation, “the entry into the United States of nationals of North Korea as immigrants and nonimmigrants is hereby suspended.”
The Trump administration on Monday announced it would once again “resume” refugee admissions from 11 countries previously identified as “high risk,” based on national security claims. But in resuming admissions, the government would also impose additional security enhancements to these countries and accept refugees from these countries on a case-by-case basis after individuals undergo a “deeper vetting” process.
So much for Trump using his speech to praise him as “a testament to the yearning of every human soul to live in freedom.” And it’s not just Ji who would have been subjected to Trump’s hateful policies, either. Under Trump’s proposal to stifle family reunification—anti-immigrant extremists like to deride this as “chain migration”—he and several others from his administration wouldn’t be in the U.S. today, including Mike Pence, social media director Dan Scavino, and one of the architects of those numerous bans, noted white supremacist Stephen Miller. “Trump has benefited from what could be called ‘chain migration’ on both sides of his family,” noted the Washington Post. “If Trump’s proposed rules applied, neither Trump’s paternal grandfather nor his mother would be allowed to enter the United States, since each came to meet a sibling already here.”