http://www.vox.com/2017/1/27/14370854/trump-refugee-ban-order-muslim
When the ban came out, the fallout was everywhere, but this article
The exchange (which begins around the 17 minute mark here) starts Trump riffing about how top foreign-born Ivy league graduates should be allowed to stay in America where they can be “job creators.” But then Bannon spoke up to disagree, and he did so in a very revealing way:
TRUMP: We have to keep our talented people in this country.
BANNON: Um—
TRUMP: I think you agree with that. Do you agree with that?
BANNON: Well I got a tougher — you know, when two thirds or three quarters of the CEOs in Silicon Valley are from South Asia or from Asia, I think — on, my point is, a country’s more like, [inaudible], a country’s more than an economy. We’re a civic society.
Bannon’s “statistic” that over two-thirds of Silicon Valley CEOs are Asian-born isn’t even close to being true, since only a small minority are. But the bigger takeaway is that Bannon was clearly disturbed enough by this mistaken idea to bring it up. He was clearly trying to choose his words carefully, but he made it crystal clear that he was disturbed by the (fictional) idea of all these Asian-born CEOs running around in America.
Once you keep those views in mind, the method behind the “madness” of the Trump administration’s treatment of green card holders becomes clear. Most Republicans generally profess to love legal immigration. They say they are only concerned with the illegal variety (and Trump himself has said the same).
But some of the people around Trump, like Bannon, top White House policy aide Stephen Miller, and attorney general nominee Jeff Sessions, go much further. They want to privilege native-born Americans over even the most entrepreneurial and industrious (and legal) immigrants.