Congress is MIA on Trump’s travel ban

President Trump’s “do- over” on his executive order banning most people from six Muslimmajority countries from entering the U. S. has just had a one- two punch of devastating legal blows. Federal judges in Hawaii and Maryland have stepped in to temporarily block his new ban, hours before it was to take effect.

With two branches of government locked in a legal back- andforth, the third has been conspicuously absent. In Congress, a third of senators have not even taken a position for or against Trump’s new order, and many who criticized his first ban — including Republicans — have now gone eerily silent. Despite the executive order being as wrongheaded and harmful as its predecessor, Congress has yet to fulfill its oversight duties and hold a hearing.

No amount of editing can make this executive order anything but what it is: discriminatory and damaging. It demonizes the vulnerable — people who have fled torturers, warlords and dictators — and alienates many of the 3.3 million Muslims in the U. S. who are peaceful, positive contributors to society.

After the revised order was announced, 134 former government officials wrote a letter to Trump, warning that the order will in fact weaken U. S security, by giving the false impression that America is at war with Islam and playing right into the hands of those Trump claims he wants to fight.

While real threats to U. S security exist, this order does nothing to safeguard us. It is predicated on an unwarranted belief that refugees and anyone from the six banned countries are inherently dangerous. It is based on who people are, not what they’ve done. We need smart, tailored security measures based on facts, not prejudice.

The effect this ban has on people inside and outside of our country is real. By slashing the number of refugees allowed in, the order shuts the door on tens of thousands of refugees who have already entered the rigorous vetting process to come here.

Rabyaah Althaibani, a U. S. citizen, has not seen her husband since their wedding a year ago. Her husband, Basheer, is a Yemeni citizen. After their wedding, Rabyaah came home to New York to begin the process of getting Basheer a visa and planning for their life together. Neither knows when they’ll be reunited.

If this hateful policy remains, it will continue to be the subject of court battles. The longer the court battles rage on, the longer these families are trapped in limbo. And the longer the U. S. remains unstable in the eyes of the rest of the world.

Amnesty International is fighting this new ban, as we did the previous version, mobilizing our members here and across the world to protest.

Throughout U. S. history, Congress has played the decisive role in defining our values by enacting laws that reflect those ideals. Some people think we should shut our doors on the world to preserve ourselves.

These court decisions show that if we do so, we will lose who we are.