Framers Wouldn't Stand for Trump's Anti-Muslim Immigration Ban

Document Type

Letter to the Editor

Journal Title

The Baltimore Sun

Publication Date

2-10-2017

Abstract

Not only is President Donald Trump's executive order suspending the Refugee Admissions Program and barring people from seven predominantly Muslim countries from entering the U.S. bigoted and short-sighted, it violates the deepest principles of the framers of our Constitution.

The order brings back the long-rejected concept of a "religious test" for determining who receives the aid of our government, noting that when the refugee program resumes, it will "prioritize refugee claims made by individuals on the basis of religious-based persecution, provided that the religion of the individual is a minority religion in the individual's country of nationality." It also allows for individual case-by-case entry based in part on the same criteria before the program's resumption. In other words, it will give priority to Christians fleeing Syria but not Muslims — something the president later confirmed in an interview.

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