Travel bans violate human rights. No human being is illegal.
President Donald Trump’s first executive order authorizing a travel ban on immigration from select Muslim-majority countries was met with fierce resistance across the country and for good reason. It effectively wrote discrimination into law, making Muslim immigrants and citizens scared for themselves and their families.
Trump has now released a new executive order with the same discriminatory and hateful goals, this time less susceptible to lawsuits. Among a few other changes, the new ban excludes Iraq and eliminates the indefinite ban on Syrians. Regardless of these changes, the ban still unfairly targets Middle Eastern refugees. We cannot allow Trump and his order to continue its regimen of hate, because it violates our national values of equality, freedom and respect.
There are millions of Syrian refugees, the majority of whom are children, seeking asylum anywhere they can find it. They simply want to escape the violence and atrocities occurring in the Syrian civil war, but this ban removes all hope of them doing so in the U.S. This is a human rights crisis and Trump’s solution is simply to ignore the issue, justifying it with nationalist rhetoric and racist ideology.
Further, it is a simple fallacy to condemn an entire group of people for the actions of a few. The vast majority of Muslims are genuine, kind people. This kind of ban prevents families from being together and blocks the efforts of those seeking a better life in the U.S. The law here states people are innocent until proven guilty. Our immigration and travel laws should reflect this.
In Photos: UW students gather on Bascom to protest refugee executive order
We must, as a united people, urge U.S. Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Oshkosh, to use his position as chairman of the Committee for National Security and Governmental Affairs to take a stand against this horrific legislation. He is obligated to listen to our voices as residents of Wisconsin. While in the past he has failed to renounce the ban, with enough pressure from his constituents it is possible to change his mind.
Please consider writing to and calling Johnson and urging him to vote against these executive orders any chance he gets. We must demand he act as an advocate for human rights. This issue is just too important to ignore.
John Kinney ([email protected]) is a sophomore majoring in sociology and philosophy.
