Sun Sentinel Palm Beach Edition
Political, religious leaders condemn travel ban
U.S. Reps. Ted Deutch and Debbie Wasserman Schultz joined Monday with Jewish and Muslim community leaders from South Florida to condemn President Donald Trump’s immigration orders, which they said would go down in history as a stain on America.
“We weaken our nation by turning our back on those fleeing from religious, political and violent oppression. We are a nation of immigrants. And we cannot and will not just quietly accept this,” Wasserman Schultz said about Trump’s temporary bans on admitting refugees and from seven predominantly Muslim countries.
She said Trump’s orders would go down in history with the U.S. refusal to accept Jews fleeing Europe as Nazism flourished and the internment of Japanese-Americans in this country during World War II. “President Trump has been in office, and he’s already added another indelible black mark on our nation’s history,” Wasserman Schultz said.
Deutch said the immigration orders are unconstitutional and un-American. “Our Founding Fathers would be disgusted with what came together in this executive order.”
The restrictions would actu- ally make America less secure by “feeding the flames of animosity against the United States,” he said. “Make no mistake. This order, dripping with prejudice, makes America less safe. And it leaves thousands of families and children around the world in limbo.”
The Democrats appeared together on the 10th day of Trump’s presidency to condemn most of what he’s done in his early days in office, but the event was dominated by Friday’s moves to restrict people entering the U.S.
More than 60 people showed up and stood behind the speak others
“This dreadful executive order makes America shine less bright today.” David Barkey, national religious freedom counsel for the Anti-Defamation League
ers who gathered at Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport.
Trump’s order issued Friday blocks refugees and people from Iraq, Syria, Iran, Sudan, Libya, Somalia and Yemen from entering the U.S. The result was chaos over the weekend at government agencies and airports, court orders halting some of Trump’s policy, a partial White House reversal and an outpouring of protests around the country, including at South Florida’s airports.
David Barkey of Pembroke Pines, national religious freedom counsel for the Anti-Defamation League, said the move to keep out refugees is reminiscent of some of the worst parts of U.S. history. “This week brings back dark echoes of the past,” he said. “This dreadful executive order makes America shine less bright today.”
Khurrum Wahid of Coral Springs, chairman of the board of the Muslim-American lobbying group Emerge USA, said Trump’s executive order “was America at its worst.”
But, Wahid said, he was heartened by the response of hundreds of lawyers coming to the aid of people detained at airports and of thousands of protesters across the country. “We also saw this weekend the best of America.”
He also said he had a message for the president: “I thank you for uniting this nation, uniting us against your vision of America. Because we have a better vision.”
Wasserman Schultz and Deutch criticized Trump for announcing his immigration restrictions on International Holocaust Remembrance Day. She said Trump’s failure “to even mention Jews or anti-Semitism in his statement commemorating that day was disappointing and trampled on the memory of the 6 million Jews murdered by the Nazis during the Holocaust.”
They were joined by Allan J. Hall, a Holocaust survivor from Miami Beach, who said he “cannot remain silent when people are excluded from entry into the United States because of their religion and their national origin.”
Deutch represents Broward and Palm Beach counties and Wasserman Schutz represents parts of Broward and Miami-Dade counties. Their Republican colleagues from MiamiDade County were divided over Trump’s order.
U.S. Rep. Carlos Curbelo wrote Sunday evening on Twitter that it seemed the executive orders “were hastily issued & need a lot of work.”
U.S. Rep. Ileana RosLehtinen, former chairwoman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, said in a statement Sunday that Americans could have been kept safe with more thorough screening procedures. She said the Trump administration needs to do a better job crafting its orders “in contrast to this broad brush approach which doesn’t focus on the precise problems.”
But U.S. Rep. Mario DiazBalart said in a statement Monday that the president’s “primary responsibility is to keep the people safe” and emphasized the temporary nature of the bans.
“I am struck by the double standard and hypocrisy of those who are offended by this executive order, but who failed to challenge President Obama when he took similar action against Cuban refugees; especially since President Obama’s action was meant to appease the Castro regime and not for national security reasons,” he said.