Friday, President Donald Trump altered countless lives with a signature, ushering in a 90-day immigration ban against travelers from seven majority-Muslim countries, a 120-day ban for refugees and an indefinite ban for Syrian refugees. The only exception includes applicants from minority religions, which are largely Christian in the selected countries.

Protests immediately erupted at airports around the nation Saturday afternoon, notably at John F. Kennedy airport in New York, where crowds swelled into the thousands throughout the evening after learning dozens of green card holders and those with legal visas were being detained.

All the while, lawyers were arguing the legality of the order in courts across America, with a Brooklyn court the first to put a halt to the order, issuing a nationwide stay allowing those with valid visas to enter the United States normally. Since then, at least three more federal courts have followed suit, according to The Washington Post.

Widespread criticism from democratic and some GOP representatives followed. Even former President Barack Obama broke his silence Monday, with a spokesperson stating he “fundamentally disagrees with the notion of discriminating against individuals because of their faith” and is “heartened” by citizens “exercising their Constitutional right to assemble, organize and have their voices heard.”

Still, Trump has maintained his support for the order, saying that it wasn’t about banning Muslims from America but about “terror and keeping our country safe.”

This comment, however, is suspect, considering there have been no reported fatal attacks on United States citizens by immigrants from these seven countries from 1975 to 2015, according to the Cato Institute. The order also ignores key countries such as Saudi Arabia and Egypt, where the majority of the 9/11 attackers were from and where Trump conspicuously has had business dealings. Despite including no countries with connections to 9/11, the attacks are mentioned in the executive order three times.

Because of this, it’s impossible to see this immigration ban — which is being quite accurately referred to as a “Muslim ban” by multiple news outlets — as anything other than needlessly brutal, blatantly xenophobic and fundamentally un-American.

In fact, the order does entirely what it sets out to prevent. It makes Americans — which includes Muslim-Americans and those from other nations — feel less safe, as we have now seen that certain Americans and certain immigrants will be given priority over others under this ban. On top of this, excluding non-citizens who wish to experience our great country makes the nation feel less like a place of freedom and prosperity, as it has long been characterized, and more like a prison of fear, misunderstanding and ignorance toward our fellow humans.

The Parthenon editorial staff believes that our fellow Muslim and international students are just as deserving of the basic American rights and freedoms that we exercise on a daily basis. Through programs like INTO Marshall, all Marshall students — domestic or foreign — are given the opportunity to learn about different cultures, religions and ideas. The Parthenon staff recognizes these students’ contributions to our university, to our society and to our America.

In a Saturday statement Marshall University echoed many of these views, with President Jerome Gilbert saying international students add “immeasurable value to our campus by bringing the richness of their cultures to Marshall and Huntington.”

To the Muslim and other minority students attending Marshall: this executive order is not what America is about. The protests and backlash it has received indicate as much. It is a hasty, hateful and harmful order that ignores the principles America was founded on. This country is better than this. We hope that you continue to feel welcome in America, which belongs to you just as much as it belongs to us.