By Christian Mosqueda
Staff Writer
President Trump’s recent decisions to exercise his executive powers have come with more than their fair share of controversy.
Since taking office on Jan. 20, Trump, with the signing of a pen, has symbolically enacted policies that are the polar opposite of the Obama administration’s ideals.
Trump has indeed been busy during his first weeks in office: promising to build a wall with Mexico and threatening to cut funding to sanctuary cities; banning Middle Eastern refugees from seven nations entering the country; and taking aim at overseas groups that fund abortions.
At the same time, many Dominguez Hills’ students, who hail from multicultural backgrounds, could not have disagreed more with the president’s recently enacted orders.
“I don’t think that’s right,” said Veronica Vega, an English major. “A woman should know what she wants to do with her body, and for someone to come and to say, ‘We’re going to stop that now,’ that’s not good.’’
Max Garcia, a business major, disagreed with the travel and immigration directives, citing that it is already a difficult process that travelers go through to be cleared for entry into the United States.
“I don’t understand why they would ban seven countries that statistically haven’t even been proven to have any terrorist threats,” Garcia said. “If [Trump] really wanted to do something that is important he would target those other countries that are known threats.”
As to sanctuary cities, Garcia reiterated that most Americans or their ancestors were immigrants. For this reason, he believes that Trump’s policies are hypocritical because of the country’s foundational values and history of embracing immigrants.
Stephen Harbor, graphic design major, said he disagrees with all of the president’s new policies.
“It’s a poor use of tax dollars,” he said. “I feel like people who voted for him should pay for it [the wall].”
As for the refugees, Harbor said that the president is unfairly and falsely categorizing all of them as terrorist threats.
On Jan. 24, at the State of the State address, Gov. Jerry Brown rebuked Trump by signaling that California “would be a beacon of hope” and would continue to preserve the freedoms and principles for which the state is known.
“We may be called to defend those laws, and defend them we will,” Brown said.
Alondra De La Torre, an English education major said, “It’s cool that California is standing their ground and standing for what they believe in. At the end of the day, that’s what this country is all about.”
