President Donald Trump signed an executive order banning Muslims and refugees from majority-Muslim countries on Friday. In response, groups like the Council on American-Islamic Relations have fired back, promising federal lawsuits. Here are responses from six other refugee and Muslim rights organizations.
The National Immigration Law Center
Trump’s Backdoor Muslim Ban Is an Affront to America’s Core Values and the Constitution
NILC and our partners will take the administration to court
WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump today acted on his campaign promise to institute a Muslim ban, signing an executive order restricting people from several Muslim-majority countries from entering the United States for a period of at least 90 days. Trump also is halting most refugee admissions for 120 days — an action that includes an indefinite halt to admissions of Syrian refugees — and is adding screening requirements for all immigration benefits. Today’s order also slashes the number of annual refugee admissions from 110,000 to 50,000 for this fiscal year.
Marielena Hincapié, executive director of the National Immigration Law Center, issued the following statement:
“Today’s announcement is a troubling turn in our country’s history. President Trump unilaterally imposed actions today setting forth an agenda that turns its back on some of the world’s most vulnerable populations and attempts to punish people based purely on where they’re from and what they believe. The National Immigration Law Center will not stand for any such discriminatory policy and we — along with our partners in the civil rights, Muslim, and immigrant and refugee communities — are prepared to take the administration to court.
“Policies that codify hate by singling out entire groups of people contradict our most cherished American values and defy the Constitution. History has shown us how these types of policies that single out communities based on religion or national origin not only inflict great harm on our communities, but are utterly ineffective at addressing national security concerns.
“On a day when we should all be reflecting on our past mistakes, Holocaust Remembrance Day, it would serve the president well to remember that our country’s past indifference and inaction led to the senseless killings of thousands of Jews who sought unsuccessfully to flee persecution in Nazi Germany. It is appalling that on this day, of all days, President Trump would take such heartless and harmful actions against people who have been displaced by horrific violence and abject poverty.
“History will judge us harshly for turning our backs on the most vulnerable because of our ignorance and fear. The National Immigration Law Center remains steadfast in using all of our resources and expertise to defend those this administration has decided to attack.”
The National Immigrant Justice Center
NIJC (Like Most Americans) Stands With Muslims And Refugees
Statement of Mary Meg McCarthy, Executive Director, National Immigrant Justice Center
As a human rights organization that has been entrenched in the U.S. immigrant rights movement for 30 years, Heartland Alliance’s National Immigrant Justice Center (NIJC) has seen both the best and the worst of America’s treatment of immigrants. We remain steadfast in our support for refugees and asylum seekers of all faiths in the wake of the anti-Muslim and xenophobic executive orders issued today by the president.
NIJC has been honored to represent hundreds of men, women and children who have fled to the United States to escape persecution and death, and courageously rebuilt their lives as Americans. They are our family members, classmates, coworkers, neighbors, and fellow citizens. The president’s efforts to smear refugees and asylum seekers as threats undermine our country’s identity as a beacon of hope for the persecuted. Trump’s actions, on Holocaust Remembrance Day, are an affront to millions of Americans whose patriotism is strongly tied to our belief that our country, founded by immigrants, welcomes people driven from their homes by tyranny and warfare. They also insult the ancestors of Americans descended from refugees.
Ben Weinberg, a member of NIJC’s Leadership Board and pro bono attorney, shared his perspective: “I am the child of an immigrant and a refugee. When my mother was 12 years old, her mother and grandparents put her and her brother on a boat from Berlin to America. My grandmother and great grandparents made this painful choice because they believed that the United States would protect my mother. My great grandparents were able to protect my mother, but they themselves were murdered in the camps. My family saw what can happen when the government labels entire groups of people as dangerous or undesirable. We say never again. Never. Not in Germany. And most certainly not in the United States of America.”
The executive order suspends the full U.S. Refugee Admissions Program for at least 120 days, and indefinitely suspends U.S. resettlement for refugees from Syria. The order also suspends all other immigrant and non-immigrant admissions to the United States for at least 90 days for individuals from Iraq, Iran, Sudan, Somalia, Syria, Yemen, and Libya. The order also may impact individuals from these countries who are present in the United States but are not citizens. For these individuals, NIJC has the following advice:
- Consult with an immigration attorney before traveling outside the United States.
- Individuals who already are outside of the United States and prevented from returning should contact an immigration attorney.
- Individuals from one of the affected countries who have applied for immigration benefits may experience delays in the adjudication of their cases. These individuals also should contact an immigration attorney, as such delays may be improper and unlawful.
Refugees and asylum seekers are among the most vulnerable people in the world, but they also are among the most courageous. NIJC will continue to represent refugees and immigrants who seek relief provided under U.S. and international law, and we will challenge any efforts to unlawfully obstruct their access to protection.
Take Action: Call Members Of Congress Through The Capitol Switchboard At (202) 334–3121 And Express Your Support For Refugees — Regardless Of Where They Come From Or What Religion They Practice.
Amnesty International
Executive Action on Refugees is Cruel and Inhumane
Based on reports and remarks made by President Trump, Amnesty International USA had the following reaction to an executive order regarding extreme and unwarranted restrictions on immigrants.
“This puts anti-Muslim bigotry into policy and is eerily reminiscent of the kind of religious discrimination we’ve documented in countries like China and Iran,” said Margaret Huang, executive director of Amnesty International USA.
“The executive order President Donald Trump issued today is cruel, inhumane, and violates international law.The United States has a rich history of helping refugees rebuild their lives safely and with dignity. Our refugeeprograms should not paint individuals’ national origin or religion as suspicious or unwelcome.”
“People seeking asylum are no different than anyone else who wants to live free from fear. We will fight to ensure that the U.S. continues to play a role in addressing this global humanitarian crisis, instead of turning its back on people fleeing some of the world’s most desperate situations.”
“The vast majority of Americans reject this malicious and divisive agenda, which violates human rights and goes against this country’s shared values of equality, dignity, and opportunity for all. Amnesty International has over a million members and supporters organizing to help communities around the U.S. welcome refugees. We are mobilizing to demand that Congress protects human rights, including those of people fleeing violence and seeking asylum.
Amnesty International’s “I Welcome” campaign protects the rights of refugees and people seeking asylum by documenting human rights abuses and pressing governments to do their fair share to address this humanitarian crisis. In the U.S., Amnesty International is working to protect refugee resettlement programs and access to asylum at the U.S southern border, in particular the harsh practice of automatically detaining children and their mothers who are seeking asylum and other practices that undermine meaningful access.
The American Civil Liberties Union
Trump Begins His Unconstitutional Program of Anti-Muslim Discrimination
By Cecillia Wang, ACLU Immigrants’ Rights Project
In 1939, the German ocean liner St. Louis and its 937 passengers, almost all Jewish refugees, were turned away from the port of Miami and sent back to Europe. Of those passengers, 254 were murdered in the Holocaust. The U.S. government turned away those refugees, so heartbreakingly close to safety — and also restricted Jewish immigration and instituted new vetting procedures — because of rampant overblown fears that the Nazis might smuggle spies and saboteurs in among the Jewish refugees.
Yesterday, on Holocaust Remembrance Day, The White House put out a statement that failed to mention the 6 million Jews who were exterminated by the Nazis. Hours later, President Trump signed an executive order suspending all refugee resettlement for 120 days and indefinitely suspending the resettlement of refugees from Syria. In addition to banning Syrian refugees, the president ordered a ban all entries of the nationals of seven majority-Muslim countries: Iraq, Syria, Iran, Sudan, Libya, Somalia, and Yemen, for 90 days, and provided that the ban might be extended and that additional countries might be added to that list.
Trump’s executive order is a major step toward carrying out his campaign threat to ban the admission of Muslims into the United States. Tellingly, today’s order authorizes the U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security to admit refugees on a “case-by-case” basis, notwithstanding the 120-day suspension, for people of a minority religion in their home countries. Trump announced during his press conference that his order will help Christians to enter the United States.
In effect, Trump has barred Muslims from entering the United States, while favoring the entry of Christians.
One of the tenets upon which our country was founded is that religion is our own business and not the government’s. We have freedom of belief. We do not have religious litmus tests for participation in society. Trump’s order is anathema to those founding principles. It violates the First Amendment’s Establishment Clause, which prohibits the government from preferring or disfavoring any religion. Trump’s anti-Muslim policy also violates the Equal Protection Clause, the part of the Fourteenth Amendment that guarantees that everyone is entitled to equal protection under the law.
Trump’s orders are immoral as well as unconstitutional. He is barring the entry of modern-day counterparts of the passengers of the St. Louis — children injured in Syria’s terrible and brutal civil war, who are at imminent risk of being killed. And Trump’s order is a slap in the face to the millions of Americans who uphold our best traditions of welcoming the stranger seeking refuge.
Trump’s policy is also foolish. Former senior U.S. military commanders, diplomats, and homeland security officials, both Democrats and Republicans, have publicly stated that a block on refugees from Syria and other Muslim countries is contrary to U.S. security interests because it feeds the ISIS narrative that there is a war between Islam and the West and that Muslims are not welcome in the United States.
Moreover, as demonstrated in ACLU litigation last year, only the most vulnerable Syrian refugees are resettled in the United States and that only occurs after vigorous security screening by the National Counterterrorism Center, the FBI, the Defense Department, the State Department, and US Customs and Border Protection.
Among those who may barred from entering the United States is Hamed Khalid Darweesh, an Iraqi man who worked as an interpreter for the U.S. Army’s 101st Airborne Division. According to Brandon Friedman, a former Obama administration official who commanded a platoon during the invasion of Iraq, the Iraqi “spent years keeping U.S. soldiers alive in combat in Iraq.” He arrived at New York’s JFK airport on Friday evening and was detained.
The ACLU along with the International Refugee Assistance Project, the National Immigration Law center and Yale Law School’s Jerome N. Frank Legal Services Organization, as well as the firm Kilpatrick Townsend & Stockton, filed suit early this morning. We are a diverse society, built largely on the sweat and ingenuity of immigrants and refugees.
American Muslims, immigrants and U.S.-born alike, are part of the fabric of this nation and part of what makes America great. As U.S. businesses, investors, and universities have pointed out, American Muslims are our neighbors, friends, and colleagues. They are us. Trump’s ban separates American families and deprives our country of the contributions that these newcomers, and their children and grandchildren, will make as Americans.
Nearly 80 years ago, U.S. government officials, backed by the deliberately stoked fears of refugees, turned refugees away at our shores and sent men, women, and children back to their deaths. Today, Americans look back in shame at that moral, political, and legal failure — even as our president repeats the mistakes of the past. We are better than today’s executive order, and we must rise up and insist that America live up to our best ideals and not our worst fears.
The Arab American Institute
Statement: AAI President James Zogby on President Trump’s Executive Action on Immigration and Refugee Admissions
The Executive Order issued today by President Trump is wrong on so many levels.
President Trump’s order to ban the entry of individuals from Arab and Muslim-majority countries to the U.S. is a misguided act that will deny millions of Americans the opportunity to be visited by their parents, siblings, and other family members.
Similarly, there is the President’s decision to suspend our nation’s refugee program. With one broad stoke, he has slammed the door on tens of thousands of innocents fleeing persecution and seeking refuge in our country. This heartless act is not based on security concerns, since those applying for refugee status already go through a rigorous vetting process. Rather, it is based on fear and prejudice and is a stain on our nation’s honor.
The policies outlined are contrary to what we know to be true. Americans welcome immigrants and they welcome refugees.
The next time President Trump is in New York he should go to Ellis Island and read the Emma Lazarus poem inscribed on the Statue of Liberty — “Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free…”. For the tens of millions of Americans who are immigrants and the descendant of immigrants, those words define the meaning of our nation and our promise to the world. In one day, our new president has broken that promise, damaged our nation’s meaning, and reduced the Lady in the Harbor to tears.
The American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee
Update: Muslim Ban Executive Orders
Earlier this afternoon President Donald Trump signed Executive Order (EO) Protection of the Nation from Foreign Terrorist Entry into the United States, which essentially implements an Arab and Muslim ban. The EO also puts an immediate ban on refugees entering the United States.
The American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee (ADC) has already received reports that green card holders and other visa holders have been denied boarding and admission into the United States at the airport. The EO bans nationals and U.S. legal permanent residents (LPR’s — green card holders) from seven countries from entering the United States. The seven countries are Iran, Iraq, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria and Yemen. Additional countries can be added to the list in the future. Specifically, the ban prevents green card and visa holders from those countries from entering the U.S. for 90 days possibly more.
ADC has developed a toolkit with information about the ban, and the impact on community members. The kit also includes actions you can take. Click here to view the toolkit.
ADC is advising nationals in the U.S. who are from the above referenced countries to not travel abroad. You will not be allowed to re-enter the country. ADC will be hosting a Live Discussion on the EO and its ramifications on Monday, January 30 at 2:00 P.M. EST via Facebook Live.
ADC’s team of lawyers is reviewing the language of the orders to get a complete and better understanding of the EO in its entirety. We are working on a number of community town halls and forums across the country discussing the orders and there implications on visa holders and refugees. We are also providing regular updates on our official Facebook Page and Twitter feed — be sure to follow both to stay up to date.
For green card holders (LPRs) and student visa holders denied entry at the border or airport, contact ADC immediately at 202–244–2990**, via email at [legal@adc.org](mailto:legal@adc.org), via Twitter @adctweets, and through [Facebook Messanger**](http://salsa3.salsalabs.com/dia/track.jsp?key=-1&url_num=5&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.facebook.com%2Fadcnational%2F+).
ADC has been diligently working on this matter and doing our best to keep the community informed regarding the possible implications of the EO. The EO demonstrates the Trump Administrations clear agenda to criminalize all immigrants, asylum-seekers, refugees, and persons of Arab ancestry and/or of the Islamic faith. The Trump Administration is manipulating current immigration mechanisms to authorize mass blanket discrimination against entire populations based on national origin, religion and/or ethnicity.
Make sure to rise with us and make your voice heard. #NoBanNoWall
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