Do You Support Legislation to Overturn Trump’s Travel Ban?

What’s the story?

• A group of Democrats have introduced the NO BAN Act, which seeks to overturn President Donald Trump’s ban on travellers to the U.S. from several Muslim-majority countries.
• Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN) tweeted on Tuesday:

What’s in the bill?

• The National Origin-Based Antidiscrimination for Nonimmigrants Act would terminate the Trump administration's travel ban, which targets several Muslim-majority countries, including Syria, Iran, Yemen, Libya, and Somalia. The NO BAN Act would also rescind Trump’s asylum and refugee ban.
• Trump signed Executive Order 13769 on January 27, 2017, following repeated calls during his 2016 campaign to ban all Muslims from being allowed into the U.S. “until our country's representatives can figure out what the hell is going on.” 
• Lower courts shot down the order, but the Supreme Court upheld Trump’s so-called “Muslim ban” in June 2018.
• In 2018, the State Department rejected over 37,000 visa applications due to the ban, up from less than 1,000 the previous year.

What are people saying?

Supporters of the No Ban Act

• Sen. Christopher Coons (D-DE) and Rep. Judy Chu (D-CA) introduced the bill Wednesday with support from freshman lawmakers Omar and Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-MI).
• “The fact that we still have this so-called Muslim travel ban on the books and being enforced is a stain on our reputation around the world,” Coons said. "And it’s hurting real people.”

• Nearly 400 civil rights, faith, and national security advocacy organizations have announced their support for the NO BAN Act.

Supporters of the travel ban

• When the Supreme Court ruled in favor of Trump’s travel ban by a 5 to 4 vote, Republican Rep. Bill Johnson of Ohio spoke with NPR about his support of the ban, explaining it was meant to protect against “those that wanted to do America harm.”

“If you look at the countries that were in the travel ban, that's a fraction of the Muslim population across the world. You know, it's only about 8 percent of the total Muslim population. If he wanted to ban all Muslims, it would've been a lot more countries included in that. And I think that's one of the misrepresentations of both the media and the liberal left that tried to undermine the president's authority.”

• Trump hailed SCOTUS’ decision as a “tremendous victory” towards defending the country against terrorism, crime, and extremism.

“This ruling is also a moment of profound vindication following months of hysterical commentary from the media and Democratic politicians who refuse to do what it takes to secure our border and our country,” Trump said in a statement issued by the White House soon after the decision was announced.

• At the time, Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) said he was “pleased” with the ruling.

"As I stated when the new Executive Order was issued, it is not a religious ban," Graham said on Twitter. "The order was focused on countries that are in true states of disarray and would have great difficulty vetting to ensure terrorists are not coming into the United States."

What do you think?

Do you support the NO BAN Act? Or do you support the travel ban? Take action above and tell your reps, then share your thoughts below.

—Josh Herman

(Photo Credit: Rep. Judy Chu on Twitter)