Trump vs. Obama Refugee Ban: 9 Things You Need to Know

By Samuel Smith, Deputy Managing Editor Monday, January 30, 2017

3. Trump's order bars persecuted refugees from countries not associated with terror threats.

Innocent, 11, was orphaned during the war. Rebels entered his family's village and they were forced to flee - his parents over the border to Rwanda and Innocent into the Congolese wilderness. He later discovered his parents died, and today he lives alone in the Mugunga 1 IDP camp in Goma, Democratic Republic of Congo. He spends his days combing the forest in search of food, hoping to somehow return home. | (Photo: World Vision)

Although proponents of Trump's order say that the 120-day moratorium on all refugee resettlement will allow the new administration to determine whether it is safe to allow entry to refugees from countries where terror threats exist, the moratorium also impacts refugees who are being victimized by political and ethnic conflicts in their home countries, not terrorism.

"This 120-day moratorium also affects refugees from Congo, Burma, the Ukraine, and countries that are not at all associated with the threat of extremist terrorism that the president is using for the primary reason for this ban," Soerens explained.

"In fact, that is not an insignificant number of people," he added. "Congo was the No. 1 country of origin for refugees last year, more than Syria, and those people will be blocked for 120 days as well."