Citizens of Terror States

Via al-Muhajabah, I see that there is a bill in Congress to prevent any citizen of a state sponsor of terrorism from entering the U.S., and expelling those already here. I fail to understand the appeal of this idea to anyone who thinks it through even a bit. For one thing, these countries are generally dictatorships. The people have no control over their government's foreign policy. I'm also trying to think of a terrorist attack committed by a citizen of one of the countries on the list...none of the September 11 hijackers were, and I can't recall hearing any of them mentioned in the different arrest reports and everything that float in as the "War on Terror" progresses.

There are, however, plenty of citizens of state sponsors of terrorism already here, and with a large impact on our country. Cuba, for example, is on the list, and supporters of this bill will presumably sign up to send Miami's Cuban exile community back to the loving arms of Fidel Castro. Ahmad Chalabi and the other Iraqi exiles would have been sent away, if they were ever here.

Fortunately, I'm convinced that not even the current administration would sign on to this bill, which is probably driven by a desire to appeal to the GOP base more than anything else.

UPDATE: Matthew Yglesias just e-mailed me to point out a provision for refugees in the actual legislation. He also suggested this is realistically going nowhere, as there are no co-sponsors or anything.