Xenophobic, inhumane and just plain stupid
How Trump's revised travel ban tramples on American values and risks playing directly into the hands of violent extremists
New packaging, same fear and hate.
Donald Trump's Executive Order on immigration may have been revised, but it remains blatantly discriminatory.
Thinly disguised as a national security measure, Trump’s travel ban reinstates many of the most repellent elements of the original blocked by US courts.
The US president has effectively shut America’s door to anyone - including refugees - from Syria, Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan and Yemen. These six countries have two main things in common: they are predominantly Muslim, and many of their citizens are trying to seek asylum abroad to escape serious human rights violations like persecution, indiscriminate bombing, and torture.
Rather than curbing the excesses of the first travel ban, the revised version shows a xenophobic policy towards Muslims which is mutating, virus-like, into an ever more resilient strain. And like a virus, its effects cannot be easily contained.
Salil Shetty, Amnesty International Trump’s efforts to slam the door on those fleeing terror will be remembered among the darkest chapters of American history.
Shattered hopes
One Muslim refugee tells of being left in limbo - and in fear for his life - after being forced into hiding by President Trump's travel ban.
Family ripped apart at the stroke of a pen
It was an excruciating choice that no family should ever have to make.
Should they stay together with their two young daughters and miss perhaps their only chance to escape the horrors of war, or should they make a break for freedom but leave their year-old baby behind in a foreign land half-way around the world?
This was the devil’s dilemma facing US-Yemeni dual national Baraa Ahmed and his wife, who were separated from their breastfeeding baby in the wake of President Trump’s discriminatory travel ban last month.
When a US District Court issued a temporary stay on the ban, Yemenis who had valid visas rushed to get to the USA to avoid the threat of being barred again. But a visa for Baraa's infant daughter had not yet been approved, so the couple faced an impossible decision – opting to fly to the USA, leaving their child behind.
I had no choice but to leave my baby ... It was a very cruel choice, but what could I have done? I had no other choice. I couldn’t risk all of them losing their chance of getting in.
In numbers: Trump ignores refugee crisis
110,000
Number of refugees Barack Obama pledged to admit in 2017
50,000
Trump’s annual refugee cap - meaning 60,000 are denied US resettlement this year alone
4.8 million
Current number of Syrian refugees, none of whom will be permitted to enter the USA
Start making a difference
Tell Trump his new Executive Order will harm some of the world’s most vulnerable refugees
President Trump has signed a new Executive Order, which reinstates harmful measures that discriminate against nationals, including refugees, from six Muslim-majority countries. It also temporarily stops refugees from any countries from resettling in the US.
This Executive Order could affect families who have escaped the rubble of Aleppo, or fled war and starvation in Yemen. These are people fleeing conflicts and other serious threats, and they deserve protection.
Email President Trump now and tell him that the US government must revoke this discriminatory Executive Order.
It is time to call on the President to stop abusing his power, to uphold the US’s commitments to the world’s most vulnerable refugees and to end the discriminatory travel ban. Show the President that there is a massive groundswell of global support for refugees and against discrimination.
Join us by taking action now.
