Affected families, elected officials, advocates and experts have roundly condemned the Trump administration’s announcement to expand its Muslim ban to target primarily Africans. Among the key voices highlighting the damage to our country’s values, interests, and families include:
- Speaker Nancy Pelosi denounced Trump’s new regulation in a statement noting that, “The Trump Administration’s expansion of its outrageous, un-American travel ban threatens our security, our values and the rule of law. The sweeping rule, barring more than 350 million individuals from predominantly African nations from traveling to the United States, is discrimination disguised as policy.”
- Senator Kamala Harris (D-CA) according to the New York Times, “Trump’s travel bans have never been rooted in national security — they’re about discriminating against people of color…They are, without a doubt, rooted in anti-immigrant, white supremacist ideologies.”
- Senator Chris Coons (D-DE) in Washington Post op-ed, “Trump’s expanded travel ban is a grave foreign policy mistake” writes: “Targeting people from countries where, in many cases, democracy is just taking root also makes it even more difficult to promote democratic values, encourage economic development and attract talented students who aspire to study in the United States … This policy has been rightly criticized as an abandonment of U.S. values that tears apart American families, but these examples show that it is also a grave foreign policy mistake.”
- Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee (D-TX), who represents one of the nation’s largest concentrations of Nigerian immigrants and is the Founder and Co-Chair of the Congressional Nigeria Caucus: “We believe in no discrimination in the Constitution on the basis of race, but this administration has stripped and shredded constitutional values. This current president did not consult leadership in Congress on the issue; this is again an abuse of his power and total disrespect of Congress by failing to provide advance notice. There is no doubt terrorists are roaming through some of those countries, but there are also terrorists in Russia and China, and those countries did not receive travel bans. We must push back with major action; we don’t expect to lay down on this.”
- Rep. Joe Neguse (D-CO), son of Eritrea immigrants, “At the end of the day, in America, immigrants are integral parts of our communities and it is entirely un-American to discriminate against people based on where they come from and how they pray. There is a sense of urgency around this issue and I am willing to take it on.”
- Farhana Khera, Executive Director of Muslim Advocates, in an interview in PBS Newshour, “…it’s actually ripping families apart. ..where literally tens of thousands of Americans are hurting today because they are not being allowed to be reunited with their family members and their loved ones….it’s not rooted in any kind of national security justification at all. The — we have not yet seen the administration really kind of justify or explain exactly how banning babies and grandmothers makes us safer.”
- Patrice Lawrence, a co-director of UndocuBlack Network, “The reasons keep changing about why it is that the Trump administration wants to keep Black and brown people out. And that’s because there is no honest reason, except for racism and xenophobia. Behind these bans and visa sanctions are real people with real families – facing the pain and uncertainty that family separation brings.”
- Mustafa Jumale, Policy Manager, Black Alliance for Just Immigration (BAJI), said “As a Queer Somali Muslim advocate, this issue hits close to home. Because of the Muslim Ban one of my family members was stuck in Nairobi for almost three years, separated from her husband and children. Her youngest daughter lives with chronic illness. No mother should be so cruelly separated from her children.”
- Amaha Kassa, Executive Director, African Communities Together, “As Africans we’re not unfamiliar with heads of states who consider themselves to be above the law and use tribalism to turn our communities against each other and bolster themselves in power. We won’t sit quietly when it happens.”
- Abraham Zere, a doctoral candidate at the School of Media Arts and Studies at Ohio University originally from Eritrea: “This decision complicates everything and creates fear … If I can’t be reunited with my mother, it nullifies the whole notion of protection and punishes innocent citizens for reasons they had no slightest part in.”
- W. Gyude Moore, a visiting fellow at the Center for Global Development assessed, according to the New York Times, that “With the new expansion, the ban will affect nearly a quarter of the 1.2 billion people on the African continent … potentially taking a heavy toll on African economies — and on America’s image in the region.
- Wa’el Alzayat, chief executive for the Muslim-American civic engagement organization, Emgage: “Already, the ban has ripped countless families apart, and has denied refuge to communities fleeing unimaginable persecution. It is horrific that this rejection of humanity is being expanded.”
