Trump’s Bans are Based on Hate, Not Security

IMMEDIATE RELEASE January 31, 2020

CONTACT Jessica Juarez Scruggs, (206) 321-0803, jessica@progressivecaucuscenter.org

WASHINGTON — Executive Director of the Progressive Caucus Action Fund, Liz Watson, released the following statement after the Trump Administration’s decision to add six countries to it’s so-called Travel Ban: 

“The Progressive Caucus Action Fund condemns the Trump Administration’s despicable, reckless,and discriminatory expansion of it’s so-called Travel Ban.  This latest iteration is no different than the original Muslim Ban: it is motivated by hatred, not any kind of concern for national security. 

From the Chinese Exclusion Act to laws denying citizenship and the vote to Native Americans and African Americans to Japanese Internment, our country’s history is stained by racist efforts to exclude people based on their race, religion or national origin.  Collective persecution has never made us safer or more secure. It has only poisoned our society and betrayed our highest ideals.  

Three years ago, Donald Trump added yet another link in the chain of white nationalist immigration policy when he recklessly and without warning announced his original Muslim Ban.  Travelers at airports were thrown into chaos, families were ripped apart and thousands of dedicated attorneys, political leaders, translators and ordinary Americans rushed in to help and to protest this travesty.  We will continue to resist Donald Trump’s attacks on immigrants and communities of color at every turn. 

The Muslim Ban - in any iteration - is simply wrong.  We call on Congress to pass the NO BAN Act (H.R. 2214), introduced by Rep. Judy Chu.  The NO BAN Act would not only end the Trump Administration’s Muslim Ban, it would take steps to ensure that this kind of discriminatory and irresponsible policy can never be passed again. The Muslim Ban must be ended, not expanded.”

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About the Progressive Caucus Action Fund: The Progressive Caucus Action Fund (PCAF) is a 501(c)(4) nonprofit that drives progressive ideas into the debate, supports greater cohesion across the progressive movement, generates the momentum we need to advance racial, economic and gender justice, and builds progressive power across America.