Dissent Channel Alternatives To Closing Doors In Order To Secure Our Borders

Download or read book Dissent Channel: Alternatives to Closing Doors in Order to Secure Our Borders written by and published by . This book was released on 2017 with total page 5 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This is a draft memo submitted via the State Department's Dissent Channel and signed by an unknown number of US State Department Foreign Service officers and other US diplomats. The memo was a dissenting opinion in response to President Trump's executive order entitled, "Protecting the Nation from Foreign Terrorist Entry into the United States, " signed January 27, 2017 instituting a suspension of entry to the U.S. and issuances of visas for people from Iran, Iraq, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria, and Yemen. The order also temporarily suspends all refugee admission and indefinitely suspends refugee admissions from Syria. The State Department's Dissent Channel is a mechanism for employees to confidentially express policy disagreement, created in 1971 as a response to concerns within the Department over the government's handling of the Vietnam War. Authors of a memo submitted through the Channel, which is open to all regular employees of the State Department and USAID, may not be subject to any penalty or disciplinary action in response. Once a memo is submitted, the Secretary of State's Policy Planning Staff must acknowledge its receipt within two working days and will usually distribute it to the Secretary of State, the Deputy Secretary of State, the Under Secretary for Political Affairs, the Chairperson of the Open Forum, and, if the memo's author is employed by USAID, by the head of that agency as well. Taking into account the wishes of the author, the memo may also be distributed more broadly within the State Department and may be done so anonymously. The ultimate significance of the channel is that memos must receive a substantive response within 30-60 working days.