Rep. Takano: Executive Order on Foreign Nationals, Refugees Is a Moral Failure and Humanitarian Disaster

WASHINGTON, Jan. 27 -- Rep. Mark Takano, D-Calif., issued the following statement in response to President Trump's executive order calling for the suspension of visas to citizens of certain Middle-Eastern countries and the suspension of the U.S. Refugee Admissions Program:

"President Trump's executive order turns America's back to the suffering of thousands of men, women, and children fleeing unspeakable violence. The ongoing humanitarian tragedy in Syria requires us to rise to the occasion and demonstrate our commitment to standing up for victims of oppression around the world. Instead, we are sending a messaging to desperate families that they are on their own. This is a shameful moral failure that will feed into anti-American rhetoric and damage our security at home and our interests abroad.

"The truth is the United States already thoroughly vets all refugees and all foreign citizens requesting a visa. President Trump will soon realize that the policy of "extreme vetting" he advanced during the campaign has been U.S. policy for several years.

"As the descendent of parents and grandparents imprisoned in Japanese American internment camps, I am sickened by the use of collective punishment against all citizens of a certain nationality. This executive order is plainly un-American and plays to our worst instincts of tribalism and nationalism.

"On its own, this executive order marks a terrible moment for our country and a stain on our legacy. But for President Trump to sign this order on International Holocaust Remembrance Day is an insult to the memories of the Jewish refugees who were murdered when too few nations stepped up to shelter them."

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