ARI SHAPIRO, HOST:
In the State Department, there is an easy and usually private way for employees to register their concerns about U.S. policy. It's called the Dissent Channel. Today, an unusually large number of Foreign Service officers are using the channel to protest Donald Trump's executive order on visas and refugees. NPR's Michele Kelemen reports that scores of officers have signed a dissent cable that says the order, quote, "runs counter to American values and could be counterproductive."
MICHELE KELEMEN, BYLINE: The White House says it consulted for, quote, "many weeks" with the State Department before issuing an executive order temporarily banning visas for citizens of seven mainly Muslim countries and suspending the refugee resettlement program. Officials who were involved in the refugee program deny that. And one retired ambassador, Laura Kennedy, says the executive order did not read like it was reviewed by State Department lawyers, consular or refugee officials.
LAURA KENNEDY: It is just, as the dissent message, I think, makes clear, inconsistent with values, with security aims of the administration, with process, with any number of things.
KELEMEN: During her 40-year career at the State Department, Kennedy never signed a dissent cable herself. She remembers one time in the 1990s when more than a dozen diplomats raised concerns about U.S. policy in the Balkans. Last year, about 50 Foreign Service officers criticized the Obama administration for failing to do enough to protect civilians in Syria. But this Trump executive order is generating much more attention, according to Kennedy.
KENNEDY: I know that many, many serving officers were horrified by this message.
KELEMEN: That is the message the White House was sending in its executive order titled "Protecting The Nation From Foreign Terrorist Entry." The draft dissent cable, which was published by the Lawfare blog, points out that the overwhelming majority of attacks on U.S. soil are committed by native-born or naturalized U.S. citizens. Those are individuals who have been living in the U.S. for decades or since birth. And it says terrorist attacks that were carried out by foreign nationals entering the U.S. on visas came from countries that were not included in the ban, such as Pakistan and Saudi Arabia. Asked about those who signed the dissent cable, White House spokesman Sean Spicer was dismissive.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
SEAN SPICER: I think that they should either get with the program, or they can go.
KELEMEN: All of this comes at a time when the Trump administration has cleared out top management positions at the State Department without naming anyone new. Secretary of state designee Rex Tillerson is still awaiting confirmation. Michele Kelemen, NPR News, Washington.