Advocacy, Aid Groups Condemn Trump Order as ‘Muslim Ban’
The Council on American-Islamic Relations said it will announce a Constitutional challenge to what it called a "Muslim ban.” News of the order had Princeton University urging students to delay travel to countries that could be affected.
"This is no time for America to turn its back on people ready to become patriotic Americans,” President and CEO David Miliband said in a statement. The group called Trump’s actions "harmful and hasty.”
Trump’s order suspends the US Refugee Admissions Program for 120 days, and indefinitely suspends admission of Syrian refugees to the US until "sufficient changes” have been made to the program, NBC News reported.
The order does not specifically say it targets Islam but it suspends most entry for 90 days from certain nations based on statute related to the Visa Waiver Program.
The most recent version of that visa waiver program put restrictions on those who had traveled to seven countries since March of 2011: Iraq, Syria, Iran, Sudan, Libya, Somalia, or Yemen. The order says there are exemptions for certain visas.
One Twitter user expressed fear for his father’s ability to travel in and out of the United States to attend a family wedding, despite saying he was a legal resident, asking: "Is this real?”
The chairman of The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops committee on migration said "we strongly disagree” with the order.
One Tufts professor whose synagogue planned to sponsor a Syrian family’s resettlement in the US responded with outrage in a tweet that went viral.
Many Democrats also condemned the order.
"Make no mistake — this is a Muslim ban,” said California Sen. Kamala Harris, a member of the US Senate Committee on Homeland Security & Governmental Affairs.
Advocates responded similarly.
"’Extreme vetting’ is just a euphemism for discriminating against Muslims,” the American Civil Liberties Union said in a statement. "Any effort to discriminate against Muslims and favor other religions runs afoul of the First Amendment.”
Amnesty International USA called the order "cruel” and "inhumane” and said it violates international law. "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,” Executive Director Margaret Huang said in a statement.
