Wall Street & the Travel Ban |

Wall Streeters typically aren’t the protest type. When they feel strongly about something, they don’t protest it — they trade it. So, while you saw the tech industry explode with outrage over President Donald Trump’s immigration ban, you haven’t heard much beyond measured statements from big Wall Street firms and you don’t see a lot of finance guys marching on Washington.
“Off the record, Trump went too far too fast. It seemed barbaric,” a sales trader at a bulge bracket firm said. “But our firm and the industry as a whole are much better served by standing on the sidelines on this one.”

The immigration ban (or “pause,” as Homeland Security Secretary John Kelly likes to call it) prevents people from seven different countries — Iraq, Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria, and Yemen — from entering into the United States. That goes up to 120 days for refugees. However, for Syrian refugees, the ban is indefinite.

The ban hit two-hot button issues for Wall Street.