Both South Asian American and Japanese American groups are condemning President Trump’s decision Friday to expand his Muslim travel ban to six more countries.
“Like each previous version of the Muslim ban, this new ban is rooted in the Trump administration’s bigotry and xenophobia, including the president’s well-known belief that Black immigrants come from “sh*thole countries,” said Mike Ishii, Co-Director of Tsuru for Solidarity, a group of Japanese Americans dedicated to ending detention of refugees and immigrants at detention centers.
The ban now includes Myanmar, Nigeria, Kyrgyzstan, Eritrea, Sudan and Tanzania.
“One thing is clear, the Muslim Ban was this administration’s first family separation policy just days after the presidential inauguration in 2017, and it has served as the foundational policy for targeting communities of color ever since,” said Lakshmi Sridaran, South Asian Americans Leading Together’s Interim Executive Director. “Since then, we have seen attacks on DACA, TPS, diversity lottery, green cards, public benefits, refugees, asylum seekers, pregnant women, and more to institutionalize a white supremacist agenda.”
The issue is one close to the heart of many Japanese Americans.
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“We recognize this kind of bigotry; it is what politicians used during World War II to justify rounding up our families and throwing us into American concentration camps,” Ishii explained.
SAALT is calling for the passage of the No Ban Act. The Act calls for the immediately rescission of the Muslim Ban and would limit the president’s power to exercise such authority.
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