Rep. Ilhan Omar slams ‘hateful’ US travel ban on terror-plagued countries

Progressive Rep. Ilhan Omar took to the House floor Wednesday to denounce the Trump administration’s travel ban targeting countries that are failed or fragile states or beset by terrorism, as lawmakers debated the subject before voting along party lines to repeal it.

“The White House has tried to wrap their hateful policy up in a false story about national security. But we know the truth,” said the self-described Democratic Socialist, a Muslim-American born in Somalia and frequent critic of President Trump.

“I’ve spoken countless times, both before and since I entered this office, about the hateful and brutality of the Muslim ban,” continued the freshman Minnesota lawmaker.

“Today I want to celebrate the work that brought us to this point. I want to celebrate the countless Americans who went to the airport the day the first ban was announced. I want to celebrate the thousands of State Department employees who signed the said memo, those who resigned in protest,” she said.

Trump campaigned in 2015 on “a total and complete shutdown of Muslims entering the United States until our country’s representatives can figure out what is going on,” and warned that terrorists could infiltrate the US without one.

Once he assumed office, Trump signed an Executive Order that banned foreign nationals from seven countries–Iran, Iraq, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria, and Yemen– from visiting the United States.

The ban was challenged in court and went through several permutations until the Supreme Court upheld it in June 2018.

At the time the executive order was signed in January of 2017, the Islamic State controlled swathes of Iraq and Syria as it’s ‘caliphate,’ and had occupied multiple cities with passport offices across the two countries.

Somalia, Sudan and Yemen were also “primary operating sites” of Sunni extremist groups.

Since the overthrow of Libyan dictator Muammar el‐Qaddafi in 2011, Libya has been a failed state and a breeding ground for various Islamic militant groups to flourish within the power vacuum.

The House later passed the legislation to repeal the ban by a 233-183 vote along party lines.

The legislation — spearheaded by Rep. Judy Chu (D-Calif.) and backed by 219 co-sponsors — includes language aimed at dialing back in the Trump’s ability to impose travel restrictions on citizens from other countries and bars religious discrimination on immigrant-related decisions, according to the website.

Under the NO BAN Act, the State Department and the Department of Homeland Security would have to consult with Congress before imposing restrictions.

People “unlawfully harmed” by any restrictions would be able to sue in federal court.

A number of Republican lawmakers expressed their objection to the move, citing national security and the power of the president to protect the country from foreign threats.

“This is not a Muslim ban. This is a legitimate travel restriction implemented for the safety of this nation,” Rep. Andy Biggs (R-Ariz.) said on the House floor.

“We are spending our time with this bill that would limit it and make it more difficult for the president of the United States — any president, just because some people don’t like this president, they are going to make it harder for any president — to keep Americans safe, whether it’s from terrorists abroad or whether it’s for health pandemics that might break out again in the future. This is lunacy,” House Minority Whip Steve Scalise (R-La.) said during the debate.

On Monday, Joe Biden vowed to end the ‘Muslim ban’ on ‘day one’ of his presidency, should he be elected.

“If I have the honor of being president, I will end the Muslim ban on day one, day one,” Biden said during the “Million Muslim Votes Summit” call hosted by Emgage Action which endorsed his White House bid in April.