Mitch Perry
Democrats across Florida are blasting President Donald Trump‘s executive order, which suspends for 120 days the entry of all refugees from certain Muslim countries to the United States.
The order, signed Friday, bands Syrian refugees indefinitely, and for 90 days, it blocks entry into the U.S. for citizens of seven predominantly Muslim countries: Iran, Iraq, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria and Yemen.
Among those speaking out is Kathy Castor of Tampa.
“President Trump’s executive order targeting and banning legal permanent residents and refugees from war-torn areas is illegal, immoral and un-American. It has made us less safe. If the president wants to empower jihadists, this is the way to do it,” Castor said Sunday.
Castor said she is in contact with local refugee assistance agencies to monitor circumstances of families who may have been in transit when Trump signed his executive order late Friday afternoon. She vows to “do everything possible to ensure America continues to provide safe haven to victims of torture and persecution as our country has done since its founding.”
Castor called Trump’s temporary ban “outrageous,” adding that banning Muslims, Iraqis and others who have assisted the U.S. military in Iraq and Afghanistan will empower the terrorists.
“Facts matter,” she said. “Trump is taking our country down a dangerous path based on disinformation and discrimination.”
Meanwhile, Debbie Wasserman Schultz has also taken exception to the timing of Trump’s executive order, coming on the same day the administration sent out a statement commemorating International Holocaust Remembrance Day without mentioning Jews or antisemitism.
The South Florida Democrat called that omission “insensitive, disappointing and trampled on the memory of the 6 million Jews murdered by the Nazi’s during the Holocaust.”
“As a representative of tens of thousands of immigrants, I will stand with my immigrant and non-immigrant constituents and fight this unconstitutional and immoral policy with every ounce of energy I have,” Wasserman Schultz said of the temporary ban. “As the granddaughter of immigrants who fled persecution in Eastern Europe, I will not allow history to repeat itself by barring people fleeing for their lives and watch them perish because America turned our backs.
“Never Again means something to me even when it clearly means nothing to President Trump and his administration.”
Boca Raton Representative Ted Deutch asked Saturday in a tweet if any Republican would object to the temporary ban.
Some of these legal permanent U.S. residents have Republican Members of Congress. Will any of them object to this outrage? Any of them? https://t.co/ckFR2EV3tp
— Rep. Ted Deutch (@RepTedDeutch) January 28, 2017
On Sunday, a handful of Republicans, including John McCain, Lindsey Graham, Ben Sasse of Nebraska and Senator Susan Collins of Maine, criticized the proposal.
