The House of Representatives is expected to debate and vote on the NO BAN Act a today, a bill to rescind President Trump’s Muslim Ban, African Ban and Refugee Ban as well as to prevent measures that restrict legal immigration and travel based on religion, national origin or other forms of blatant discrimination.
The following is a statement by Frank Sharry, Executive Director of America’s Voice:
Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free is part of our national philosophy, and the statement of who we aspire to be does not include clauses to exclude people based on religious affiliation, race, gender, or national origin. In stark contrast, President Trump relentlessly divides the world and the United States into warring factions of ‘us’ versus ‘them. He has inflicted his cruelty, self-interest, chaos and divisiveness on everything he touches, most notably on our immigration policies and practices.
The House of Representatives has an opportunity to right things today. The time has come to reject policies that exclude based on capricious or spurious logic. The NO BAN Act would effectively prevent this President and future presidents from issuing bans like the Muslim Ban by limiting the use of executive actions to bar certain classes of people. Future bans would have to be temporary and fact-based — not political stunts aimed at reelection — so our immigration laws would remain free from ethnic, racial and religious discrimination.
The President has taken a sledgehammer to America’s asylum, refugee and immigration systems — all without engaging Congress. He has done so to try to remake the demography of who is admitted into America in the interest of trying to remake the demography of America. We urge the Congress to reflect the values we aspire to and pass this legislation.
