'You Are Causing People Pain. You Are Separating Families'

Broadly: Why do you oppose Trump's immigration orders?

Mallika, 33, Dallas: Trump's executive order on travel is an underhanded obfuscation. By now, we know from interviews and records that it was designed to target Muslims and green card holders, and with a disorienting speed—no matter what the official line is on terrorist threats and geographic nuance. This episode matches in intent and feigned innocuousness the immigration policies that we most roundly condemn today (though even those histories are being rewritten before our eyes). The newer the immigrant, the easier it may be to shut the door against them, though enough remember the journey getting through to pry it back.

Newcomers to America rely on the ones already in place to know their history and keep the door open. Under Trump, it will take extraordinary effort from those of us closest to the door to wrest it back in place. Whatever obfuscations Trump and Spicer make, the ban is against Muslim people with the right to entry.

How do the restrictions impact you or your loved ones?

Iranian friends seem in a particularly painful state of shock. One, a British citizen, and green card holder, is struggling to tell his kids there will be no trips this year. Others fret over ailing parents in far away places. Their freedoms were choked overnight. My immediate family are thankfully all citizens: my parents, new ones, though they spent most of their lives contributing to America, not India. And we are not Muslim. But for most people I know whose roots go far, Muslim or otherwise, the fear of what might yet happen is big.

"If I could tell President Trump one thing about these immigration restrictions, I would say…"

Take ten deep breaths. You are causing people pain. You are separating families, and making old people sicker. Your fears are paranoid. Problems may seem fixed, but solutions needn't be—and these are terrible ones.

This interview has been edited and condensed.