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UPDATE to Friday’s article:
In a press release, CAIR National Litigation Director Lena Masri said the order’s purpose and motive is to target and ban Muslims in Muslim-majority countries from entering the United States, and therefore is unconstitutional.
(Click here to see a PDF of the complaint and the named plaintiffs.)
In another stunning development today, Acting Attorney General Sally Yates, who was appointed by President Barack Obama and will serve until Sen. Jeff Sessions (Trump’s nominee) is confirmed, instructed Justice Department lawyers not to make legal arguments defending the “Muslim ban” executive order.
“My responsibility is to ensure that the position of the Department of Justice is not only legally defensible, but is informed by our best view of what the law is after consideration of all the facts,” she said in a letter. “In addition, I am responsible for ensuring that the positions we take in court remain consistent with this institution’s solemn obligation to always seek justice and stand for what is right.”
(January 27, 2017) — President Donald Trump signed two executive order today putting into place extreme vetting of immigrants and limiting the influx of refugees into the United States from seven predominantly Muslim countries.
The order is called the “Protection of the Nation from Foreign Terrorist Entry Into the United States,” and before the President signed it, he looked out those present for his signature and said, “We all know what that means.”
According to this CNN article, the orders are specifically designed to keep out “radical Islamic terrorists.”
“I’m establishing new vetting measure to keep radical Islamic terrorists out of the United States of America,” Trump said. “We don’t want them here. We want to make sure we are not admitting into our country the very threats our soldiers are fighting overseas.
Trump added: “We only want to admit those into our country who will support our country and love — deeply — our people.”
The countries singled out by the order are Iraq, Syria, Iran, Sudan, Libya, Somalia and Yemen — and all persons from those countries are barred from entering the US. for 30 days. The U.S. Refugee Admissions program has been suspended for 120 days and will be reinstated “only for nationals of countries for whom” Trump’s administration and Cabinet determine can be “extremely vetted.”
In response to the executive orders, the Council on American-Islamic Relations announced today that it will hold a press conference in Washington, D.C.Monday to announce the filing of a federal lawsuit on behalf of 20 or more individuals challenging the”Muslim ban” executive order. Said CAIR National Litigation Director Lena F. Masri in a press release,”There is no evidence that refugees — the most thoroughly vetted of all people entering our nation — area threat to national security. This is an order based on bigotry, not reality. Says the release:
The lawsuit, to be filed in the U.S. District Court – Western District of Virginia, will challenge the constitutionality of the order because its apparent purpose and underlying motive is to ban people of the Islamic faith from Muslim-majority countries from entering the United States.
The signing of these executive orders coincided with Holocaust Remembrance Day, a fact that did not go unnoticed by many Muslims, Jews and others across social media:
Said journalist Jon Solomon:
So on Holocaust Remembrance Day, this is essentially the Muslim ban/religious test while Trump prioritizes Christians. We’re better than this. Is this really who we want to be?
Or, as New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristof writes: “Today, to our shame, Anne Frank is a Syrian girl.”
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