This is the Cato Daily Podcast for Monday, January 30th, 2017.

I'm Caleb Brown.

The Federal Executive Branch Prohibition on many immigrants coming to the United States

from seven majority Muslim countries

is very likely illegal but it's not strictly speaking a Muslim ban

Alex Narasta and immigration policy analyst from the Cato Institute

separates fact from fiction.

Several hashtags have emerged on Twitter and elsewhere characterizing the President's

executive order on immigration as a Muslim ban.

How fair is that?

It is unfair.

These seven countries are only seven out of the, I believe it's about 60 that have a majority

of Muslim population.

There are also seven countries that don't send that many immigrants

to the United States to begin with.

So about 50,000 green cards a year

equal to about 5% of the total.

And in terms of total visitors to the country,

these countries account for about 0.1%.

All right, so how fair is it then to say

that the seven countries that have been singled out are countries in which the

president has no business interests.

...