UN Secretary-General António Guterres [official profile] said Wednesday that the new US order [text] on Syrian refugees “should be removed sooner rather than later.” Drawing a comparison [transcript] to the US history on the “forefront of refugee protection,” Guterres said that the policy violates “our basic principles,” echoing [JURIST report] the thoughts of human rights experts from the UN. However, the secretary-general focused primarily on the ineffectiveness of the strategy, saying: “We are dealing with very sophisticated global terrorist organizations. If a global terrorist organization [tried] to attack a country like the United States, they will probably not come with people with passports from those countries that are hotspots of conflict today.” While Guterres acknowledged the problem of global terrorism, he was resolute in stating that President Donald Trump’s executive order was not the way to address the problem.

An estimated 50,000 refugees are unable to enter the US due to the order. The order, which many claim to be unconstitutional [JURIST report] and in conflict with federal statutes, is one of several orders signed by the president since his inauguration on January 20. Last week the president signed an executive order to withdraw the US [JURIST report] from the Trans-Pacific Partnership, a trade agreement with 11 Pacific Rim Nations signed a year ago. Also last week Trump signed [JURIST report] another order preventing foreign non-governmental organizations from receiving US funding if they provide abortions or promote policies that may lead to abortions. Trump has also addressed the immigration area before in his orders. Last week he signed two orders [JURIST report] withholding federal funding to cities that provide safe haven to illegal immigrants, directing the construction of a wall along the US and Mexican border and an increase in the number of enforcement officials to remove undocumented immigrants.